IT has emerged that German eventing rider Michael Jung managed to win the European gold medal last weekend and Burghley International Horse Trials the week before, while riding with a broken leg.

Jung suffered the injury in a fall at the water complex with Fisher Rocana FST at Burghley on September 6th but amazingly managed to not only carry on competing with his second mount La Biosthetique Sam - they managed to win the four-star competition.

Jung travelled to last weekend’s FEI European eventing championships at Blair Castle in Scotland and claimed the individual gold medal with Fischer Takinou, before having surgery on Thursday to repair the broken bone. The Olympic and World Championship gold medallist had two screws inserted in his tibia, just above the ankle.

Jung (33) is the first rider in history to hold Olympic, World and European titles simultaneously and the first to win five championship titles consecutively. He first came to prominence in 2009, when he won the Luhmühlen CCI****, the FEI World Cup Eventing final in Strzegom (POL) and an individual European bronze medal in Fontainebleau (FRA), all on La Biosthetique Sam.

The pair went on to win the world title in Kentucky (USA) in 2010, double European gold in Luhmühlen in 2011 and double Olympic gold in London (GBR) in 2012.

In 2013, they were second at Badminton CCI**** while this year they finished third at Kentucky (USA) and last weekend they added the Burghley CCI**** title to their collection.

Jung won a second European title, at Malmö, Sweden, in 2013 on the nine-year-old Halunke, and last year finished second at Luhmühlen and won world team gold and individual silver medals at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France, on FischerRocana FST, also the winner of Kentucky CCI**** in April this year. He lives at Horb, Germany, where his parents, Joachim and Bridgette own a riding school.

Jung’s European gold medal-winning mount from Blair castle, FischerTakinou, is an eight-year-old chesnut gelding by the sire Jaguar Mail out of an Anglo-Arab mare. He is owned by the Jung family and Klaus and Sabine Fischer.