Always with Tranquillity.

That was the recipe for success of the German show jumpers on Friday.

"My father kicked my buttocks for years and told me to wake up," said start rider André Thieme, who is 46 years old and an experienced professional.

On his Olympic debut, he was happy about his strong nerves.

In qualifying for the Nations Cup final this Saturday (12 p.m. CEST in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympic Games), he was able to contribute a round to the German team result without obstacle errors.

Evi Simeoni

Sports editor.

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All three riders, alongside Thieme with the mare Chakaria, ridden by Maurice Tebbel with Don Diarado and Daniel Deußer with Killer Queen in the team, remained flawless;

but all three allowed themselves penalty points for exceeding the permitted time of 82 seconds.

The plan worked.

With a total of four minus points, the team achieved the second-best result of the day, which, however, no longer plays a role in the medal decision.

The top ten teams qualified for the final, where, unlike traditional nations' trophies, things start from scratch again.

Intimidating obstacles

With this, the German riders made the weak performance in the individual ranking forgotten, where only Deußer survived the qualification and had to make do with 18th place on Wednesday. But again it became clear how intimidating the large, picturesque, floodlit obstacles seem to the less experienced horses. Thieme said that his eleven-year-old mare Chakaria had become so overcautious that he got into trouble before every obstacle. "I had to fight more than ever," he said, relieved that he was still able to guide Chakaria through the course without any mistakes. The more experienced Don Diarado and Killer Queen had less nervous flutter.

The favorites for the gold medal were and remain the Swedish riders. Individual silver medalist Peder Fredricson with All In, Malin Baryard-Johnsson with Indiana and Henrik von Eckermann with King Edward, all three of whom took part in the individual decision in the jump-off, remained error-free and within the time limit. The fact that the new regulations, which only provide for three-man teams without a cancellation result, has its pitfalls, however, also became apparent on Friday. Ireland, for example, is not in the final. Because the first Irish rider, Shane Sweetnam with Alejandro, fell, the rest of the team saw no point in getting on their horses at all and gave up.

The Irishman might not have fallen if Sweetnam had speculated on the cancellation result and had been able to forego the continuation of the poorly started round. The unfortunate pictures of the Brazilian Rodrigo Pessoa, an actually sovereign rider, with his gelding Carlito's Way could have been avoided that way. The horse shied away from the course early on, and Pessoa had to use all his skills to finish the round without damage and to save Brazil's qualification.