‘You want this so bad, it hurts’
Agria FEI World Jumping Championships
Team medals
SWEDISH chef d’equipe Henrik Ankarcrona, who along with his team had come to Herning with sights set firmly on the top step of the podium, described the championship rollercoaster, of dizzy heights to depths on the turn of a pole, to perfection when he said: “You want this so bad, it hurts.”
Although the competition had more peaks and troughs than the Pacific, Sweden were on the crest of their wave from start to finish.
They took the lead on day one, adding only four faults over the next two days, so by the time the Stutteri Ask Stadium reached boiling point under the floodlights on Friday night, and although by then the live team scoring had stopped working so no one knew quite what was going on, one thing was clear. The Olympic champions had secured their first-ever world title, before their fourth combination entered the ring. In the end, the Netherlands took silver, and Britain bronze.
“The whole week has been fantastic for us,” said Henrik. “A championship is always like a rollercoaster but the horses jumped well.
“It’s been an amazing year since Tokyo. We made a plan to come here and we knew we had a good chance; we wanted to be on the top of the podium and were quite clear on that. We knew we had the capability and the horsepower and skill to do it, but it’s one thing to say it, and a completely different thing to pull it off. Thank you to these
