AACHEN,, Germany--Charlotte Fry of Great Britain on Glamourdale won the gold medal in the Grand Prix Freestyle on Saturday, Aug, 15, adding that gold to the Grand Prix Special title they won the previous day at the Dressage World Championship.
Charlotte Fry on Glamourdale (Photo by Sarah Miller for MacMillan Photo) Scoring 91.907% with her flying-themed Freestyle, Fry brought the packed Main Stadium to its feet.
Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour of Denmark on Mount St John won the silver medal, and Dressage legend Isabell Werth of Germany on Wendy de Fontaine won the bronze.
Every seat in the Main Stadium was sold for the Freestyle in which Fry and Glamourdale repeated their Herning 2022 double, winning both the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle titles to make it four consecutive individual World Championship gold medals.
IT WAS an exceptionally close Freestyle Final, with the eventual medalists joined by reigning European champions Justin Verboomen of Belgium on Zonik Plus and Great Britain’s Becky Moody on Jagerbomb among those in contention for the podium.
Dressage freestyle podium (Photo by Sarah Miller for MacMillan Photo)Fry entered the arena immediately after reigning European champions Verboomen, who had his best test of the week, scoring 88.439% and bringing the crowd to its feet.
As Fry entered, the stallion appeared to think the applause was already for him and grew even taller.
Before they had even reached A, Fry had won over the crowd, with the words “Welcome to Glamourdale Airlines, enjoy your flight” incorporated into her Freestyle.
“This was the most amazing feeling in the world,” said Fry. “We’ve never done a test like this. As soon as he goes in, he relaxes. Neither of us was sweating, we just enjoyed it. It couldn’t have been any better and I couldn’t be happier.
“In Herning in 2022, it felt as if Glammie still had to prove himself to the world. This year we put everything into this week. It has been a huge commitment from our whole team, so for this to happen is a dream come true.”
Laudrup-Dufour scored 91.236%, a new personal best.
“Yesterday it felt as though we lost the gold, but today I truly won the silver,” she said. “Freestyle felt fantastic. This was the ride of a lifetime. To ride into this atmosphere, in this arena, was something I have never felt before. It was only the second time we had ridden this Freestyle, but it felt as though we had never done anything else.”
“To go last here and hear all those scores that had already been posted, the only thing I could do was take every risk,” Werth said.
With only an error in the two-tempi changes, Werth scored 88.650% for a bronze medal to add to the team gold she had already won in Aachen.
“It was amazing today,” Werth said. “Wendy gave me everything. Our one-time changes worked. I’m very happy. With the whole crowd clapping on the final centre line, and being able to ride Wendy with just one finger on the rein in the piaffe and passage, it was amazing.”
Verboomen's 88.439% left him just 0.211 percentage points short of bronze, and Moody finished close behind in fifth on 87.479%
The sold-out finale was held under the floodlights and watched by a distinguished audience that included Her Majesty Queen Mary of Denmark; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; FEI President Ingmar De Vos; Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst; and International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry.
Fry and Glamourdale arrived in Aachen as the defending World Champions and left with both of their individual titles safely retained.
