Jung confirmed his place in eventing history as one of the world’s greats, equalling Britain’s Ginny Elliot’s record, set in the 1980s, of three European titles on three different horses.

He has also beaten Elliot’s record of six consecutive individual medals, claiming his seventh since his senior Championship debut in 2009.

The 33-year-old's third European title was arguably the hardest fought, as it came on an inexperienced eight-year-old fischerTakinou following a cross-country phase run in extremely testing weather conditions.

"Now I can say I have a champion for the future," said Jung, who along with the other podium finishers received his medal from the Queen, who last week celebrated becoming Britain's longest serving monarch 

"fischerTakinou is a really good horse and I think he has the quality for the next Championships."

All four members of the German team, including individual silver medallist Sandra Auffarth, Ingrid Klimke and Dirk Schrade, went clear in the jumping phase to give their country a fifth successive team title.

Their winning run began at the 2011 edition of the European Eventing Championships on home soil in Luhmühlenand and has included three European titles plus Olympic and world golds.

"You can see by our smiles how much this means to us," said Klimke.

"But we are very aware that we have to keep working to stay here because there are many other nations who want to be standing where we are."

Silver medallists Great Britain have not been beaten at a home European Championships since 1959, but faced a mountainous task when they had to add Nicola Wilson’s cross-country penalties following the retirement of William Fox-Pitt.

Pippa Funnell, the European champion in 1999 and 2001, who finished eighth on the nine-year-old Sandman 7, produced a clear round.

Team newcomer Kitty King, who only missed an individual medal by a 0.1 penalty, did likewise on Persimmon, while British individual Izzy Taylor, in third overnight with KBIS Briarlands Matilda, hit the planks to drop to sixth.

A difficult weekend for Wilson nearly got worse when she misjudged fence seven and One Two Many tripped through it, leaving her clinging on around his neck.

"It felt like a lifetime in which I had plenty of time to think through the consequences of falling off," she said.

"I knew we were down to three riders and I kept saying, ‘Don’t fall off, don’t fall off!’ to myself."

France's quartet were in buoyant mood after taking the team bronze medal and securing their Olympic qualification for Rio 2016, with an individual bronze medal for team debutant Thibaut Vallette capping off a productive event. 

The French army officer, a lieutenant-colonel based at the army equitation school at Saumur, jumped a superb clear round on Qing du Briot ENE HN, an 11-year-old Selle Francais by Eolien ll.

The other Olympic qualifying spot went to Sweden, fifth-place finishers behind The Netherlands, who had booked their ticket to Rio 2016 last year in Normandy.


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