Five for five
Team USA didn’t just win gold at the Pan American Games, they dominated the team competition from start to finish. All 5 of team USA’s riders finished the team show jumping round on double-clears and all of them finished the weekend on their dressage scores. I haven’t confirmed this, but I believe that this is the first time in the history of international championships that a team has finished all five of its riders on their dressage scores. Jessica Phoenix of Canada jumped clear with Pavarotti to maintain the individual lead going into the final round. The US won by over 30 points with Canada taking silver and Brazil finishing with bronze. Brazil and Argentina can celebrate getting the all important Olympic team qualifiers this weekend, with the USA and Canada of course already having teams qualified.
The top 19 individual pairs will compete in one more show jumping round coming up at 3:30pm local time, 4:30pm ET. Due to the Olympic style competition format, only the top 3 pairs from each nation are allowed to show jump in this final round. This is a pretty absurd rule because it prevents Shannon, Lynn, Selena, and Hawley from competing for an individual placing. Shannon and Lynn are currently in 5th and 6th place and less than 10 points out of 1st place. Michael and Hannah are within one rail of Jessie but all three of them jumped double-clear in the first round.
In order: Michael, Hannah, Buck, Shannon, and Lynn:
Pan American Team Results:
1. USA +0 138.6
2. Canada +12 172.6
3. Brazil +20 209.8
4. Argentina +12 229.5
5. Guatemala +4 372.6
Pan American individual results going into the last round of jumping:
1. Jessica Phoenix and Pavarotti (CAN) 43.9
2. Michael Pollard and Schoensgreen Hanni (USA) 44.5
3. Hannah Sue Burnett and Harbour Pilot (USA) 45.2
4. Buck Davidson and Absolute Liberty (USA) 48.9
15 of 30 show jumpers in the first round had double-clear rounds. For Canada, Rebecca Howard and Roquefort pulled two rails, James Atkinson and Gustav pulled one rail, Selena O’Hanlon and Foxwood High had one rail and three time penalties, Hawley Bennett was double-clear with Five O’Clock Somewhere and Jessie was clear with Pavarotti. Ronald Zabala-Goetschel of Ecuador was eliminated for falling off after a sticky jump at the 6th fence.
Team Canada didn’t win gold this weekend and I know how much this group of riders hates to lose, but they have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of this weekend. In fact, I should say that they have everything to be proud of this weekend. They represented Canada with class all weekend–both when things were going great and when they weren’t. David, Graeme Thom, and all of the Canadian support team has built a group of incredibly tough riders and great competitors who will continue the trend of podium finishes for Canada a long time into the future. Saturday just wasn’t their day.
The US and Canada had a fierce but friendly competition all weekend. Canada sent their veterans and the US sent our next generation of international riders, and you would be hard pressed to find 10 riders to better represent their countries. It has been an absolute blast sharing a small part of the experience with both teams this weekend.
Stay tuned, we have one of our world famous Eventing Nation live blogs coming up for the individual show jumping finals. Go eventing.
