Defending champions Great Britain will go into tomorrow’s final showjumping phase as the overnight leaders following an exciting cross-country day at the Paris Olympics that triggered a shake up of the leaderboard.
Laura Collett, Tom McEwen and Ros Canter all jumped clear around the 28-fence course, which was designed by Pierre le Goupil. However, Laura picked up 0.8 of a penalty for finishing two seconds outside the optimum time and Ros was handed 15 faults for missing a flag.
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo help Team GB hold on to gold
Ros and Lordship Graffalo’s penalties were upheld by the ground jury after an investigation, leaving them 24th overnight.
It means Team GB only have a single fence in hand tomorrow over the host nation, France.
Tom McEwen’s penalty-free round aboard JL Dublin — the horse formerly campaigned by Nicola Wilson and ridden to dual European gold by her in 2021 — puts them in sixth place on the individual standings.
Tom is looking to defend — or better — the individual silver he won in Tokyo.
Mixed day for Germany
Individually, Laura and London 52 have slipped from pole position after dressage to sit behind Germany’s Michael Jung on Chipmunk FRH.
Laura described her cross-country round as “such a buzz”.
Michael pulled off a textbook clear and added nothing to his first-phase score, putting him firmly in the hunt for individual Olympic glory tomorrow.
“Today there were a lot of moments to enjoy. Chipmunk made it very easy. He was listening and connected to me, and so powerful galloping,” said Michael.
If he wins gold tomorrow, it will be his third Olympic title. His last victory came at the Rio 2016 Games, where he became the third event rider to achieve back-to-back individual golds following his success at London 2012.
“I’m so thankful to have such good horses and to be at my fourth Olympic Games is a dream,” added Michael. “It’s always a special feeling [at Olympic Games].”
Will Michael Jung win his third individual Olympic gold in Paris? Photo © FEI/Liz Gregg
However, Germany is out of the running for a team medal, due to second rider Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S parting company after the drop at fence 16.
A fall of horse or rider means instant elimination and incurs 200 penalties.
Germany may choose to sub in its reserve horse and rider to showjump tomorrow, which will incur a further 20 penalties.
Britain’s lead
Great Britain are the defending champions after winning in Tokyo and the team score is now 82.5. France is just behind on 87.2.
Every showjump knocked down tomorrow costs four penalties, while one time-fault is added for every second over the optimum time.
France, the team champions in Rio, occupied third after dressage.
Laura Collett and London 52 hold individual silver overnight
Jumping clears today from teammates Karim Florent Laghouag (riding Triton Fontaine), Stephane Landois (Chaman Dumontceau, who picked up 2.8 time faults) and Nicolas Touzaint (Diabolo Menthe, who collected 3.2 faults for time) puts them in silver overnight.
Japan eyes historic medal
Team Japan is now sitting in bronze on a score of 93.8. If they win a medal tomorrow, it will be a first for this country in the history of Olympic eventing.
Yoshi Oiwa piloted the former Pippa Funnell ride MGH Grafton Street — her Burghley CCI5* winner in 2019 — home clear and inside the time to lie fifth individually.
“It was so beautiful — all the way around people were cheering for us. The atmosphere was amazing, and this is just an amazing horse.
“I’ve only been riding him for the last three months but he knows everything,” said Yoshi. “From the beginning I was trying to get the time. Pippa gave me a lot of advice and all the instructions.
”The atmosphere was amazing, with people cheering all the way round — and he is an amazing horse.”
Completing Japan’s trio are Kazuma Tomoto, who occupies eighth with Vinci De La Vigne, and Ryuzo Kitajima, currently outside the top 20 aboard Cekatinka.
Switzerland’s star
Swiss rider Felix Vogg and Dao De L’Ocean in action
Japan has an 8.6-penalty advantage over Switzerland tomorrow. Felix Vogg is best placed of the Swiss in fourth.
“I began with my plan over the first part of the course but I didn’t get a good ride over the first few fences, so I left the horse to do it himself — and he was fantastic,” he said.
”I knew the crowd would be huge here so I went to Wiesbaden [CCI4* S in Germany, which he won] because there the crowd is even closer than here, and I did it to train him especially for the Olympics.”, he explained.
Trouble for New Zealand and USA
Team Belgium lies fifth on 111, ahead of New Zealand with a score of 118.2.
The latter nation was in the hunt in fourth place after dressage but pathfinder Jonelle Price (Hiarado) had a run-out at the angled birch rails at fence 7b and incurred 28.4 penalties in total.
Clarke Johnstone picked up 4.8 time-faults with Menlo Park, while Tim Price and Falco added two for time.
Sweden now lies seventh on 120.1, ahead of Ireland on 121.1.
The USA is ninth overnight with 128.5 penalties after a run-out plus time-faults for Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake left them outside the top 45.
Boyd Martin’s 1.6 time-faults aboard Fedarman B places him 17th individually, while Elisabeth Halliday and Nutcracker’s six time-faults leaves them 22nd.
The Netherlands rounds off the top 10 teams with a two-phase total of 147.5.
Australia’s hopes
Shane Rose and Virgil tackle the first water
Australia — eighth as a team after dressage — dropped out of the reckoning when Kevin McNab quickly pulled up a lame Don Quidam. They retired, picking up 200 penalties in the process.
There were, however, two stand out performances from Shane Rose and Chris Burton.
First out was Shane, who brought Virgil home clear with 2.8 time-faults to add. He is not long back in the saddle after an awful fall earlier this year in which he suffered 18 fractures.
Shane was in a wheelchair and had to learn to walk again before he could even think about getting back on a horse — let alone being selected for Paris.
Later in the day, team anchor Christopher Burton and Shadow Man confidently motored around the course to finish penalty free.
They now lie third individually but have no margin for error, as Swiss rider Felix Vogg is just 0.1 of a penalty behind with Dao de L’Ocean.
Margins for error
Karim Florent Laghouag and Triton Fontaine for France
The top eight riders on the individual leaderboard are within 10 penalties of each other. It means medals could be won and lost tomorrow with a single pole down.
As it stands, Michael Jung has no fence in hand over Laura Collett, who in turn has no fence in hand over Chris Burton or Felix Vogg.
Yoshi Oiwa and Tom McEwen are a handful of penalties behind on 25.5 and 25.8 respectively.
They are less than a fence ahead of France’s Stephane Landois (27.2) and Kazuma Tomoto (27.4).
New Zealand’s best chances lie with Tim Price, ninth at the moment on Falco with a score of 28.5.
He is a fraction ahead of another Frenchman — Karim Florent Laghouag — by just 1.1 penalties.
Nevertheless, Michael is good under pressure and he said: “Normally [Chipmunk] showjumps very well and he wasn’t a bit tired at the end today.
“In fact, he felt so good he wanted to do it all over again. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. He’s in top shape at the moment.”
Ahead to tomorrow
Tomorrow’s showjumping phases will take place after the final horse inspection. All equines must be passed as fit by the ground jury in order to carry on in the competition.
Horses and riders will showjump to decide the team medals first, starting at 10am British Summer Time (11am in Paris).
The top 25 will then showjump again in the afternoon to decide the individual medals.
They will go in reverse order of merit, which means two-phase leader Michael Jung will jump last.
Only one thing is for certain: it will be an intense and exciting finale!
All photos © FEI/Benjamin Clark unless stated
Useful links
View the full team standings after cross-country
View the full individual standings after cross-country
