As he had done for the opening flurries on Wednesday, course designer Alan Wade (IRL) produced another immense course that tested combinations to the maximum.

So much so, there were only five clear rounds without time faults from the listed 122 starters – De Luca, third-placed Peder Fredricson, of Sweden, Germany’s Simone Blum in fourth, Irish challenger Cian O’Connor, who is fifth, and seventh-placed Max Kuhner of Austria.

Switzerland’s lead would have been more than just 0.95 penalties had overnight leader Steve Guerdat not had a fence down in his round, but Janika Sprunger led the way with just one fault, matching the scores of American pair Ward and Sternlicht.

De Luca, meanwhile, was drawn right at the end of a long day’s action aboard Irenice Horta, and he said, “That was really difficult as I watched many riders and it was a long day, but I had a good chance to watch a few rounds and I know my mare so I figured out what I needed to do. She is in super shape, and she did another amazing round. She has a great mind – I just need to ride good and give her the chance to do her best.”

“He walked around the course. He jumped it easily,” O’Connor said. “He is an extraordinary athlete. He has learned to be a little more economical with his jump – when I got him, he jumped very high and up – so we had to teach him to relax and jump across the fences more, but now he can do everything.

“He has learned to compact himself like an accordion and make that spring off his hocks.”

Lupacchini had set his own ambitions as an individual vaulter aside for the sake of the pair’s competition and it was worth it.

“We are really happy because we did what we prepared in training over this year,” he said.

In the end, it was the horse’s scores and a little wobble that put the Austrian title holders from WEG 2014 on Silver. Jasmin Lindner and Lukas Wache have trained together for eight years and won the first ever Pas de Deux World Championship title in 2012. Understandably they were quite disappointed after they lost first place by 0.014 point, finishing on 9.013.

Derks is known for her power and strength in Vaulting, but could not quite stand her dismount from Carousso Hit. Despite this mishap her technical was the best of the day.

“The dismount was expensive. Touching the ground is one point off (from the performance score). But the others have to get everything right as well,” said Derks.

Italy’s defending WEG-silver medalist Anna Cavallaro injured a knee when dismounting, and although she is still ranked fifth overall, it is doubtful that she will participate in the final competition on Saturday.

“I just wanted to go out on the good vibes after the Freestyle yesterday, which was not good at all,” said 21-year-old Leclezio who had moved from the island of Mauritius to France for better Vaulting opportunities.

At his second WEG, the top technical score pushed Leclezio in the overall lead before the final Freestyle for the medals on Saturday.

Germany’s Jannik Heiland and Jannis Drewell are in second and third. The third German Thomas Brüsewitz, fourth at WEG 2014 and vaulting as the Prince of Bel Air in the technical, lost his lead and now ranks fourth.

“It is not all lost yet,” said Brüsewitz.

Austria (7.977) has more to catch up on if they want to improve their medal with Italy breathing down their necks (7.846), and it will be a hotly contested lungeing circle at TIEC’s Indoor Arena on Saturday, starting at 12:00 p.m. EST.