Katherine Erickson, of the Grey Brook Eventing Blog that we often link to on EN, has been providing beautiful photos for the USEA this weekend from Badminton and will be writing a Badminton report for the USEA’s magazine. Katherine was kind enough to send Eventing Nation a quick report from on scene at the show jumping today. Thanks for writing this Katherine and thank you for reading.
—-
Photo by Katherine
From Katherine:
I’m sitting here in the Media Center at the final press conference for Badminton 2011, impressively sunburnt after a weekend out in unbelievably fine English weather (I didn’t even know such a thing existed!) and listening to Mary King (3rd) talk about how Piggy French (2nd) used to write Mary fan letters when she was a young girl. It’s been an absolute whirlwind of a weekend. I can hardly believe it, but my first ever trip to Badminton has come to an end. And what an ending it’s been! We ended up with perfect weather, the tightest of competitions, and an incredible victory from eventing legend (and personal hero) Mark Todd.
I had the real treat of getting to stand in the main arena to take photos for the final group (though I doubt I did as good a job as EN’s main man Nico Morgan, who was stationed in the same part of the arena as I was!). I had walked the course with course designer Kelvin Bywater in the morning and it seemed like a very good track, deceptively simple but requiring full focus from start to finish. Interestingly, Mr. Bywater explained that his choice to use three doubles and no triples had directly to do with Rolex next week, and an agreement with the course designer there to make the two tracks sufficiently unique from one another. I found this a bit surprising, if only because I’d never considered it before, but I suppose it would be a bit strange for the very few competitors lucky enough to get to compete at both to have to jump the same course two weekends in a row.
In the morning, the course rode very well, with a good number of clear rounds. I missed Selena’s round because I absolutely had to use the ‘loo’ as the British would call it (d’oh!), but both Hawley and Buck had very respectable goes. I just love Hawley and Ginny’s enthusiasm (and Ginny’s cat-like jumping style!), and Buck looked the true professional as he guided Reggie around his first Badminton.
As could be expected, though, as the pressure came on for the later group, the rails began to fall. As this was the closest Badminton in history, every rail was extremely costly, most notably with German Marina Kohncke falling from second to ninth with a single pole down and two time penalties. I also felt for young Laura Collett and Rayef, who had an lovely round (Rayef has to be one of the best movers and jumpers out there) marred only by one silly mistake at a single oxer on a turn. Since she ended up taking home basically every speciality prize there was to be won, though, I couldn’t feel too badly for her. I’ve been a fan/maybe stalker of hers since she won her first junior medals back in 2007, and can’t wait to watch her continue to succeed in the future.
My own adrenaline was pumping as I watched the last few pairs go in (I can only imagine how they must have felt!!) and I don’t think I took a single breath throughout the entirety of Mark Todd’s round. I wanted him to win so badly (I think everyone did), and when he jumped the last fence cleanly it was like a bomb had gone off inside the stadium. Watching him tear up during his victory lap had to be most perfect ending to the weekend that I could have imagined, barring of course seeing an American victory (which of course would have been the real ultimate). Even if I never get to return to Badminton–and oh lord I hope I do!–I feel so lucky to have gotten to be there for such a historic moment.
(I also got Mary King’s autograph – win!!!!)
