Nick Skelton will ride in tomorrows Individual Finals with Big Star (BEF/Jon Stroud Media)
After some skilful riding earlier today at the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Deodoro, Nick Skelton and Ben Maher have successfully qualified for tomorrow’s Individual Jumping Final.
Seven-time Team GB Olympian Nick Skelton with Beverley Widdowson’s Big Star, rode a great round a technical course. Unfortunately, they had a pole down in the middle of the combination, which saw the pair accrue four penalties, alongside a single time fault leaving them on a total for the Individual qualifying rounds of 13 penalties.
“I’m happy with Big Star, the way he jumped he was amazing. I was a bit unlucky again, but Friday is a different ball game,” said Nick Skelton.
Ben Maher and Tic Tac produced some great jumping at Deodoro (BEF/Jon Stroud Media)
Ben Maher and Tic Tac showed great determination over the course to produce some spectacular jumping with only a single time fault leaving them on a final total score of 9 penalties.
“Tic Tac felt amazing today, we’ve been progressing over the past three rounds. It’s been a tough week, we really believed we could come here and put in a good performance with the team and things just didn’t go our way yesterday. I feel my horse is jumping better every day it goes on,” said Ben Maher.
With Ben finishing in twenty-third place and Nick in thirty-third, they made the cut off, as only the top thirty-five combinations progress to the final Individual competition tomorrow.
The team placings were also decided today, where France were victorious taking the team gold medal and USA secured silver. Then in a thrilling finale that saw Canada and Germany jump-off for the Bronze, it was Germany that clinched the third spot.
The final round of the Individual competition, to decide the individual medals, takes place tomorrow from 14.00 BST.
