The team show jumping has concluded in London. EN guest blogger Liz Fletcher has been kind enough to give us Eventers a sophisticated break-down of each day of Show Jumping competition for both team and individuals. Thanks to Liz for contributing, and thanks for reading.
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Great Britain’s Ben Maher entering arena, photo via @clarebalding1
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From Liz:
Holy Union Jack, Eventing Nation! What an awesome Olympics for team GBR. So far in the ponies they’ve racked up one team gold, one team silver, and are looking really good for an individual medal from Nick Skelton PLUS the GBR dressage team is KICKING BUTT. Go home team!
Watch team GBR victory gallop, brought to you by Sarah from Smart Pak via her twitter http://yfrog.com/
Sadly, the day was not as kind to the Americans. Team USA ended up out of the medals in 6th place after a number of faults for the riders, including the usually unflappable Rich Fellers and Flexible. Flexible and Fellers will move on in the individual competition, but with 8 faults it is unlikely that they will medal. McLain Ward and Antares F will also move on to the final Individuals rounds, but they go in with 12 faults. You can catch the final show jumping action on Wednesday, August 8th.
While at work this afternoon, the TV was turned to NBC sports and highlights of the show jumping came on. One of my coworkers turned to me and said, “that is a ridiculous Olympic sport. And it’s not even that hard.” I said, “They’re jumping over five feet.” He replies, “Well, people can jump that high.” But after watching about five minutes he went, “Uh, you are so right. This looks impossible.” Even the uninitiated can understand how difficult show jumping can be, and today’s course caught out many pairs. Only 3 horses and riders have gone clear since the first round: Nick Skelton on Big Star for Great Britain, and two riders from the Netherlands, Maikel van der Vleuten on Verdi and Marc Houtzager on Tamino.
The Saudi team led the team standings coming in to this morning’s competition, but it was into a jump off by the end to decide team gold between Holland and Great Britain. GBR had not won the show jumping title since the Helsinki games in 1952. In the jump off, 3 of 4 of the British contingent went double clear, but two Dutch riders had fences down. Saudi Arabia landed the Bronze medal, their first ever.
Do you want the secret to winning a gold medal in show jumping (or any equestrian sport)? It’s all in the eyes: http://www.discoverhorses.com/
Here is an excellent article written by EN’s friend Erin Gilmore with more in depth information about the disqualification of Tiffany Foster: http://www.proequest.com/news/
Well, now that the Team medals have been decided, the show jumpers have a two-day break and we begin tomorrow morning with more coverage from dressage! Click here (http://www.london2012.com/
Go Team Great Britain!
