The medals were all to play for when the final three riders came into the magnificent Stade D'Ornaro in Caen in front of a packed 20,000 crowd, with none of the final three competitors affording the chance to make a mistake. The whole German team were outstanding with all four riders going clear in the show jumping. Michael Jung riding Fischerrocana FST came into the stadium lying in third place and produced an immaculate jumping display. Fellow teammate Auffarth was next into the arena, and she too held her nerve with another masterclass in jumping clearing every fence in 89 seconds, well below the time allowed of 93 seconds.
"I didn't think I could go and become double World Champion - its very amazing and still unbelievable", said a jubilant Auffarth after the medal ceremony. One pole was all it took for Auffarth to claim the individual title after overnight leader William Fox-Pitt riding Chilli Morning just tipped the front rail of the second fence 10 seconds into his round. As a result, Fox-Pitt dropped to individual Bronze and Germany’s Michael Jung moved up to individual Silver.
Auffarth and Opgun Louvo won the Bronze medal in the individual event at the London 2012 Olympic Games and won Silver at the European, so it was a dream come true for Auffarth to go one better and take double Gold. Auffart's performance also contributed to Germany's victory in the Team competition, ahead of Great Britain taking Silver and the Netherlands in Bronze position.
Sixty riders made it through to start of the final show jumping phase from the original 87 competitors who went cross-country, with an impressive range of international competitors competing for their Nations. The show jumping concluded an outstanding Eventing competition held over two sites, with the dressage and cross-country staged at the beautiful Haras du Pin, and the show jumping in Caen's Stade D'Ornano. The top six nations of Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, France, Australia and Ireland have now all qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
