Great Britain’s eventing team have given themselves a solid lead after the dressage phase at the Paris 2024 Olympics after posting two record-breaking scores.
Laura Collett, Ros Canter and Tom McEwen lead the way with a collective score of 66.7, while Laura (pictured above) also holds the individual lead on a score of 17.5 — and both of these figures are new Olympic records.
USA rider David O’Connor’s dressage test at the Sydney 2000 Games riding Custom Made, which scored 19.3, held the individual record for 24 years.
The previous best collective team score after dressage was 68.6, set by Australia at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
“Myself and Tom were lucky enough to be on the podium [in Tokyo] with a gold medal around our necks, so we want to do it again,” said Laura. “We’ve come here with a lot of pressure and expectations, but pressure is a privilege.”
Team standings
Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH lie second overnight both individually and as part of the German team
Germany, who were team champions at London 2012 and are seeking a fifth gold in Paris, lies second after dressage.
They are 7.4 penalties behind Team GB, the defending champions from Tokyo who are also chasing a fifth team victory.
The Rio 2016 team champions, France, are 7.1 penalties behind Germany to sit in the bronze position overnight.
Immediately behind the host nation is New Zealand on 83, while Japan occupies fifth on 87.4 and the USA sixth with 88.9.
Less than a penalty separates them from the Swiss team, on 89.6 overnight, ahead of Australia (91.5 penalties) — team silver medallists in Tokyo — the Netherlands (93.7 penalties) and Belgium (100.6 penalties).
Team Australia and USA also have four Olympic team golds under their belt to date, which means the fight for a historic fifth team gold is a four-way battle.
Laura’s lead
China’s Alex Hua Tian and Jilsonne Ban Bareel pull off a lovely test for bronze position after dressage
Laura Collett and London 52, who were a part of the gold medal-winning team in Tokyo, have a small lead over Germany’s Michael Jung.
“I loved every second of it,” said Laura after her test. “[London 52] is unbelievable. What he has done throughout my whole career. He’s amazing and he just keeps on delivering, so I’m just very, very grateful to him.”
Laura added that watching teammate Tom McEwen riding his test inspired her.
“He really went for it and smashed it out of the park and that gave me the motivation not to leave anything behind, to be brave and give it our best shot,” she said. “Luckily I have a very willing partner.”
Laura described London 52 as “really wild and naughty” during their arena familiarisation.
“It’s been quite testing, because two days ago he was really wild in that arena and naughty, and feral,” she said.
“I just had to trust that I didn’t want him to be perfect two days ago. He was very good yesterday and it would have been easy to push him in the last ten minutes today, but I saved it for the arena.”
Individual standings
Michael Jung — who is one of only three eventers to win back-to-back Olympic individual golds, at London 2012 and Rio 2016 — piloted Chipmunk FRH to an overnight score of 17.8.
Michael is 4.8 penalties ahead of China’s Alex Hua Tian and Jilsonne Ban Bareel and Australia’s Christopher Burton on Shadow Man, who share third place overnight on an equal score of 22.
Right behind them is Switzerland’s Felix Vogg (Dao de L’Ocean) on 22.1 and then Britain’s Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo) on 23.4.
“I very much tried to stay process-driven today,” said Ros of her test. “I’m over the moon with ‘Walter’. We all forget that [he] is only 12 years old. Yes, he won Badminton and the Europeans, but he is still a green horse.
“I feel like we are still only scratching the surface, particularly in a test like that, which is significantly harder than the tests we normally see.”
Britain’s Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, pictured at the first horse inspection, lie sixth
Stephanie Landois is currently best of the French trio, lying seventh on 24.4 penalties with Chaman Dumontceau.
Yoshi Oiwa for Japan occupies eight spot on 25.5 with MGH Grafton Street, while Kiwi Clarke Johnstone (Menlo Park) and Italian Giovanni Ugolotti (Swirly Temptress) round off the top end of the leaderboard, both sharing ninth place overnight on a score of 25.7.
Britain’s pathfinders, Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, currently lie 11th on 25.8 penalties.
The cross-country
Tomorrow’s cross-country phase will be an exciting day. First out will be Germany’s Julia Krajewski — the defending individual champion — aboard Nickel 21 at 10.30am local time (9.30am British Summer Time).
The course by French designer Pierre le Goupil is 5,149 metres long and the optimum time is 9 minutes 2 seconds.
There are 28 fences in total and 45 jumping efforts (the second number is higher because several fences include multiple obstacles labelled a, b, c and so on).
‘Plenty to jump’
Tom McEwen and JL Dublin lie 11th individually and help Team GB take the overnight lead
“There is plenty to jump, plenty of places where you just have to be on your game the whole way around,” was Ros Canter’s summary of the course.
“The time is going to be a big factor and that’s where mistakes creep in. I’ve got a plan. I’m open to that plan changing, but I’m going to stay in my bubble. I’ve got a fantastic team around me and hopefully we can get the job done tomorrow.”
The cross-country course runs through wooded areas of the park, along the banks of and even across the Grand Canal.
Around 40% of the 800-acre Park of the Palace of Versailles is forestry, and a lot of woodland had to be removed to make way for the course.
“Every fence is very nicely built and the gallop track is so nice,” commented Michael Jung. “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. The rain [today] has been good for the ground.
“My feeling is that the cross-country will be amazing tomorrow. We [riders] need to stay concentrated and to do everything 100% perfect.”
Useful links
View the cross-country start list
See the full team standings after dressage
Read the full individual standings after dressage
All images (copyright) by FEI/Benjamin Clark
