Thursday, 22 October 2020
The FEI has confirmed that a European Championships will take place for the Olympic disciplines of dressage and jumping in 2021. Both competitions will take place in German venues.
The FEI Jumping European Championships 2021 will take place at Riesenbeck, pending final confirmation from the organiser, from 30 August to 4 September. The venue is the home base of German Olympic gold medallist Ludger Beerbaum.
The FEI Dressage European Championships 2021 will take place in Hagen, a regular host venue for international events, again pending confirmation from the organiser. Competition is set to run from 7-12 September.
Following the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the FEI initially ruled that European Championships for the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines would not be held in 2021 in order to allows nations to focus on Tokyo. However, the European Equestrian Federation (EEF) and a number of European National Federations urged the FEI Board to review its decision.
“We are very happy to have great venues at Riesenbeck and Hagen available to host the European Championships in jumping and dressage next year, and we look forward to receiving the final confirmation from the two organisers for these Championships to go ahead,” said FEI President Ingmar De Vos.
“These Championships have really been a great example of the FEI, EEF, the German National Federation, the two organisers and everyone else involved working together to accommodate the wishes of the European National Federations and the athletes’ community to have these Championships next year. I am particularly grateful for the valuable work done by the FEI Technical Committees and Calendar Task Forces.”
Sadly, there will be no FEI European Eventing Championships in 2021 because the organisers that had put in expressions of interest to host the Championships subsequently withdrew from the process.
The FEI European Para Dressage Championships will also not take place in 2021 in order to allow athletes to focus on the Tokyo Paralympic Games.