Katrin Eckermann took a very popular home win in Aachen on Friday afternoon winning the Preis von Nordrhein-Westfalen aboard Carlson 46 (Casco x Calvados). The tough German rider made a great comeback after her bad fall in the Nations Cup yesterday, and the crowd volume in the arena increased with every fence she jumped in the heating Aachen-sun. As always the tracks in Aachen are no walk in the park. Frank Rothenberger presented the riders with a big 1.55 course, including a huge water-jump with a vertical in the middle, followed by a related distance down to an upright before the horses had to attack a wide triple bar out of the corner with another related distance down to the triple combination causing a lot of faults due to the short distance to the c-element. A huge part of the field had faults here. Although Eckermann was first to go in the jump-off, none of the thirteen other top riders were able to threaten her as she went all in around the shortened eight fence track that included a combination half-way. With her performance Katrin stopped the clock on 45.11, a time nobody could match. Doda de Miranda produced a super round aboard AD Nouvelle Europe Z (Nelson Z x Jimtown) and came closest in the chase of Eckermann’s time. But even Doda’s sharp turns and accurate riding was not enough today, and the clock stopped more than a second after Eckermann. Daniel Deusser is always dangerous, and he put up another fight in Aachen with the giant First Class Van Eeckelghem (Balou Du Rouet x Feinschnitt I Vd Richter) - pleasing the huge crowd on the stands and securing them another German rider on the podium slotting in over two seconds behind Katrin.
