| The lap of honour was the
highlight of the evening for many. The Germans are in high spirits and Cento bucks
and plunges, showing his excitement at being part of the gold medal team. Goldfever
(appropriately named, under these circumstances) joins in the fun and the two demonstrated
their zest for life as a pair in unison. 
Following the medal presentations Ludger
Beerbaum said, "We had a good day today and I think everybody contributed to the
success. We got support even from our reserve rider and Marcus Ehning whose horse
got injured just before the Games and did not compete. Germany has strong horses and
is a country of equestrian tradition. It has a huge amount of horses, a large
breeding industry, shows and riders, The combination of all of this is the reason
for our success. We presented our horses in good condition today. Everybody on
the team did their work and we were luck to win the medals".
Ludger was asked to comment on the case
involving the German Eventing Team and he said, "I was really annoyed with what
happened with the German eventers, and disappointed, although it was not something I
thought about today. I tried to be focused and it worked out well".
On riding his last round knowing
that Germany had already won gold, Ludger said, "When the team has already done well
you go ahead feeling more confident and then the pressure is not so high. Looking
back at both my rounds I realise that the second was better, more precise and
accurate.
On the retirement of the French team,
Ludger said, "The French team was one of the favourites in these Games. They
are defending world champions and what happened today was quite disappointing, but this is
the sport. It was just not the French day today. I heard that somebody started
to blame the grass for the injury of the horses, but I do not think that there is
any relation".
Marco Kutscher from Germany commented on
the case of the German Eventing team, "We did spend a lot of time on this issue
and we did not feel it was a nice issue. However there was no talk of revenge, that
would be useless".
Olaf Petersen from Germany who was the
course designer said about his course and the horses injuries, "In the first
round we had two horses injured and in the second everything went well. I believe
that the injuries had nothing to do with the dimensions of the course, neither with the
quality of the ground".
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