Photo via @clairebalding1, who had a wonderful running commentary on Twitter during the finale
Host country Great Britain has been churning out the medals in the last few days– from Jessica Ennis winning the Heptathlon, to Andy Murray defeating Roger Federer– and the momentum continued with the show jumping team.
For the first time since 1952, Great Britain won the team show jumping gold medal. The Dutch ended up with the silver, followed by the Saudi Arabian team for bronze. The US team tied for 6th, after an 8-fault ride from McClain Ward, a 4-fault ride from Beezie Madden, and a 12-fault ride from Reed Kessler. Rich Fellers and Flexible added two rails as well for the US. Fellers and Ward will move on to the individual competition. Go Flexible! [Full story from NBC]
From the Horse & Hound:
Britain’s showjumpers have won Olympic gold for the first time in 60 years.
The team of Nick Skelton, Ben Maher, Scott Brash and Peter Charles had to jump off for the gold medal against the Netherlands after both teams finished on eight faults after two rounds.
Nick Skelton, first to go, jumped his fourth clear round of the Games on Big Star.
Ben Maher replicated it on Tripple X, whose four faults earlier in the afternoon was his first fence down of the competition.
Scott Brash, who had jumped a perfect clear on Hello Sanctos less than an hour previously, just tipped the second fence for four faults.
The three Dutch riders who had jumped so far had amassed 12 faults – only Jur Vrieling was faultless, managing his first clear round of the competition. But Peter Charles had to have four faults or less to take gold for Britain.
