Eventing: Switzerland fifth at the World Championships and bound for Los Angeles

The Swiss eventing team finished fifth at the world championships in Aachen. The result secures qualification for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Gold went to Great Britain with 84.0 penalty points, ahead of Germany on 95.6 and the United States on 113.5. The Swiss finished fifteen points behind third place, a gap opened up mainly in the closing show jumping round.

Robin Gödel, riding Grandeur de Lully, finished with four penalty points. Felix Vogg on Frieda and Mélody Johner on Erin picked up 8.8 each. Nadja Minder was eliminated, which left the team without the margin needed to drop the worst of the four scores.

The individual standings

In the individual classification Mélody Johner took eighteenth place, Felix Vogg twenty-second and Robin Gödel twenty-third. The expected names filled the top places, with Germany's Michael Jung on Chipmunk and Britain's Rosalind Canter and Laura Collett.

Eventing comprises three disciplines: dressage, cross country and show jumping. It is the competition that demands the longest preparation and in which one rider's mistake weighs on the whole team result, because the final score adds up the penalties.

For Swiss equestrian sport the Olympic qualification comes two years before the deadline and allows the 2027 season to be planned without the pressure of qualifying events. Switzerland fielded full teams in eventing at the last editions of the Games, and the Aachen result confirms the group's continuity.