Germany defended their Olympic eventing team title on Tuesday by a whisker from Great Britain with New Zealand taking bronze in the concluding jumping session at Greenwich Park. World champion Michael Jung’s clear round on Sam after equally foot-perfect displays from Dirk Schrade and Sandra Auffrath gave the winners in Beijing four years ago an unassailable lead in the closing jumping session. That left Britain, featuring Zara Phillips, the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, and the Kiwis, led by charismatic veteran Mark Todd, to fight it out for the runners-up honours. The home favourites duly nabbed it when Todd knocked a fence down while British anchor Tina Cook went clear to the delight of the capacity 20,000 crowd including Prince William and wife Kate, Prince Harry and former British Prime Minister John Major. “Gold would have been brilliant, silver’s fantastic,” Cook told the BBC. Germany, favourites to prevail after holding the lead after the opening dressage and Monday’s cross country, ended up with a total of 133.70 points, with Britain on 138.20 and New Zealand on 144.40. AFP
