SUNDAY morning’s speed championship saw the 25 combinations, which had qualified during the week, start over the 1.50m track. With four seconds to add for each fence down, the course proved to be far from easy. Just nine of the 25 starters managed to keep a clean sheet.

Fresh from an individual silver medal at the Paris Olympic Games a week earlier, Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat and the Quick Star stallion Easy Star de Talma took the top prize, having recorded a time of 58.40 for the win. German Daniel Deusser rode another stallion Bingo Ste Hermelle into second place in 58.56.

Joseph Stockdale and the David Broom-bred gelding Equine Rescue Services Kandleford (Kannan x Pythagoras) took third place in 59.12. Fourth went to Italy’s Giulia Martinengo Marquet riding Captain Morgan Weering Z in 62.32.

Petronella Andersson rode Odina Van Klapscheut into fifth place for Sweden in 62.70. Ireland’s Francis Derwin Jnr (Parvati AEG) and Daniel Coyle (Lena VDL) shared sixth place, when they both stopped the clock at exactly the same time of 58.97, both having four to add for a fence down to finish on 62.97.