Double Silver at the 2023 European Raid Championship, individual and for teams
12/9/2023

On Thursday, September 7 in Ermelo, an exciting episode was experienced at the 2023 European Raid Championship with María Álvarez and Bolchoi-El-Akim, winning the Silver Medal in the individual category.

In addition, the Spanish team took home the silver medal in the team competition. A total of 75 binomials representing 14 nations, faced with a challenging 160 kilometre course divided into 6 phases. From the first phase, a group of bosses starting from 15 binomials, including Spaniards María Álvarez, Gil Berenguer and Jaume Puntí, 5 minutes over the main group of 32 binomials, with Ángel Soy and Maite Pradera.

Only ten binomials remained in the lead after the fourth vetgate check, with three of them being Spanish: Álvarez, Puntí and Berenguer. Angel Soy was 15 minutes away.

In the final phase, the pace of the leaders increased, reaching an average speed of approximately 26 km/h. This led to an exciting final sprint, in which María Álvarez with Bolchoi-El-Akim competed friction with Sabrina Arnold of Germany and Philippe Tomas of France.

Finally, Sabrina Arnold prevailed in the last meters, followed closely by Álvarez and Tomas. France's Melody Theolissat came in fourth place, followed by Gil Berenguer with Diogene-De-Jansavis and Jaume Puntí with Echo-Falls, who unfortunately did not pass the final trot control.

Amongst the 75 binomials who started the race, only 22 managed to qualify, less than thirty percent of the participants.

In the team competition, only three countries managed to qualify at least three binomials. France won the Gold Medal, Spain the Silver Medal, and Germany won the Bronze Medal, in an exciting clash between nations.

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