Impressive figures for the FEI Jumping European Championships Milano 2023, which will be staged at the Snai San Siro Racecourse in Milan, from August 30 to September 3, and which is a key competition to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The official confirmation came yesterday when the FEI published by the list of the nominative entries on its website – Click here.
The Organising Committee is extremely pleased since as many as 26 flags will be represented. This is indeed a first significant figure, bringing with it great expectations. In the history of the FEI Jumping European Championship, Aachen hit the participation record (2015, 28 nations), and only Goteborg had a similar result in 2017.
All the 16 continental ‘great powers’ will be present in Milan with a team: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (defending champion team), Hungary and Italy.
So, all the nine nations that have won at least one medal in the 24 editions of the European Team Championships held to date will participate: Germany (18 medals – 7 gold; 6 silver; 5 bronze), Switzerland (16 medals – 5 gold; 5 silver; 6 bronze), Great Britain (14 medals – 5 gold; 5 silver; 4 bronze), the Netherlands (8 medals – 4 gold; 1 silver; 3 bronze), France (7 medals – 4 silver; 3 bronze), Ireland (3 medals – 2 gold; 1 bronze), Sweden (3 medals – 2 silver; 1 bronze) and Belgium (2 medals – 1 gold and 1 bronze).
Italy also won a team silver medal at Windsor in 2009, with Natale Chiaudani/Seldana di Campalto, Piergiorgio Bucci/Kanebo, Giuseppe D’Onofrio/Landzeu 2 and Juan Carlos Garcia/Hamilton de Perhet.
Instead, for the individual title, the combinations that will participate in the European Championships in Milan come from another 10 nations: Bulgaria, Greece, Liechtenstein, Israel, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine.
The start list will be finalized at midnight on Monday August 7, the deadline for the federations to indicate the names of the five riders required (4 for the team and 1 for the individual title).
(In the pictures: Switzerland Team gold medal in Riesenbeck – ph. FEI/Christophe Taniere)
