FEI Jumping World Championships 2022: Henrik von Eckermann completes gold double on King Edward
World number one von Eckermann and King Edward were faultless yet again as the Swede claimed a first major individual title at Herning 2022 ahead of Jerome Guery and Maikel van der Vleuten.
Equestrian
Henrik von Eckermann and King Edward underlined their status as the number one pairing in jumping with victory at the FEI Equestrian World Championships in Herning on Sunday (14 August).
Having led Olympic champs Sweden to their first world team title in Friday, von Eckermann and his remarkable 12-year-old gelding King Edward jumped two clear rounds to stay atop of the individual leaderboard.
After their six clear rounds out of six at Tokyo 2020 last year, the pair had five clears in Denmark with their score of 0.58 entirely stemming from a time deficit in the opening test on Thursday.
Only one other rider, Jerome Guery on board Quel Homme de Hus, managed to come through the competition without having a fence down although the Belgium did incure a time fault on Friday.
He took silver with a score of 3.35 ahead of Dutchman Maikel van der Vleuten who repeated his bronze from Tokyo 2020 with Beauville Z.
Von Eckermann's team-mate Jens Fredricson, the elder brother of Tokyo individual silver medallist Peder Fredricson, was in silver-medal position going into the final round.
But he and Markan Cosmopolit had three fences down to plummet to 10th overall.
A clear final round might have been enough for Olympic individual champion Ben Maher to take bronze but four faults saw him finish fourth on board Faltic HB with his Tokyo partner Explosion W ruled out days before the event.
Austria's Max Kuehner also squandered a medal chance in the final round, having six faults on Elektric Blue P to end up in sixth place behind Marcus Ehning and Stargold.
German veteran Ehning and the three medallists were the only pairings to go clear on course designer Louis Koninckx's tricky final round.
READ: Things to know about Sweden's world number one jumping rider Henrik von Eckermann
Jumping World Championships 2022 Individual Results:
1. Henrik von Eckermann (SWE) 0.58
2. Jerome Guery (BEL) 3.35
3. Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) 5.96
4. Ben Maher (GBR) 9.72
5. Marcus Ehning (GER) 10.40
6. Max Kuehner (AUT) 10.49
7. Simon Delestre (FRA) 10.93
8. Nicola Philippaerts (BEL) 12.97
9. Jana Wargers (GER) 15.08
10. Jens Fredricson (SWE) 15.71
11. Martin Fuchs (AUT) 16.36
12. Tiffany Foster (CAN) 17.95
READ MORE: Paris 2024 equestrian jumping qualification process explained