Cross-country takes toll on Olympic teams

Greenwich’s cross-country took its toll on the teams competition of the Olympic eventing on Monday, with 15 eliminations among the 13 nations taking part.

Seven of the first 27 combinations fell on a course that appeared to be very slippery in places and challenging in terms of its fences.

Individual results

The cross-country drew a large crowd, including Prince William and wife Kate, Prince Harry and other royals.

Canadian rider Hawley Bennett-Awad required medical attention after falling from Gin & Juice at fence three. She is in a stable condition in Royal London Hospital, but details of her injuries were not available.

Before the Olympics, Bennett-Awad told the Vancouver Sun that Gin & Juice – named after a Snoop Dogg song – had a history of bucking and had already sent her to hospital three times.

Fellow Canadian Peter Barry was unhurt when he fell from his horse, Kilrodan Abbott.

Belgian Carl Bouckaert fell at the same fence as Bennett-Awad, while Japan’s Takayuki Yumira also parted company with his mount Latina.

Britain’s Nicola Wilson and Opposition Buzz gave the Host Nation a flying start in the cross-country, with the team eventually slotting into second place from Germany, with Sweden, and New Zealand in third and fourth.

The World and European team gold medallists delivered a brilliant round, finishing almost 12 seconds inside the time allowed of 10 minutes, three seconds. An elated Wilson remained on her dressage score of 51.70 penalties.

She said: “He was just unreal, what a fantastic horse. This is his favourite stage by far. When he gets to go cross-country day it’s like all his birthdays and Christmases have come at once.”

Australian Christopher Burton went clear inside the time by a remarkable 17 seconds. He breezed around the 5,728-metre course on HP Leilani.

It made up for eliminations by both Clayton Fredericks (Bengido) and Sam Griffiths (Happy Times) which has dropped Australia to sixth in the team contest.

British team member Zara Phillips attacked the course with confidence from the start on her Olympic debut.

Despite her horse High Kingdom’s relative inexperience, they relished the challenge and became the fourth combination to go clear inside the time, after Burton, Wilson and leader Germany’s Ingrid Klimke.

The Queen’s granddaughter punched the air as she went through the finish to an ecstatic reception from an adoring crowd as she finished on her dressage score of 46.10.

New Zealand’s three best scores from Mark Todd, Andrew Nicholson and Jonathan Paget puts the team fourth on 133.40.

Despite suffering two eliminations, Ireland still improved their team position by two places due to highly competitive performances from the three remaining riders.

Michael Ryan with Ballylynch Adventure was the first to take a fall, just a few fences from home.

Ireland’s next rider, Aoife Clark with Master Crusoe, kept Irish hopes alive with a beautiful clear round and just 3.6 time penalties, and she was followed by Joseph Murphy on Electric Cruise, who also came home with a superb clear and 4.8 time penalties.

But tragedy struck the Irish team for a second time when their leading rider, Kildare’s 22 year-old Camilla Speirs and Portersize Just a Jif, took a heavy fall at the Rose Garden complex. Both horse and rider took some time to recover and the competition was delayed while ambulances were called.

However, neither was believed to have sustained serious injury, though under eventing rules any fall leads to automatic elimination, which meant that Ireland was now in danger of losing team status, with three scores needed to continue.

Irish supporters were in suspense as the last team rider, Mark Kyle and Coolio took to the course, but they went clear, picking up 7.20 time faults, and helping to elevate Ireland to team eighth place overall.

Team Ireland’s Eventing manager Ginny Elliot said afterwards: “There was an awful lot of pressure on Mark as the last rider to go, for if he’d had an elimination we would have been out of the contest completely. But he handled it brilliantly, and he has been a great support to everyone all day.

“Mike Ryan was so unfortunate to come off just two fences from home, as he had been doing so well, but the horse was just a bit too tired at that stage. There were fantastic clear rounds from both Aoife Clark and Joseph Murphy, and Camilla was very close to home when she came off and she was within the time, as far as I know.

“I’m just going into the clinic now to see her, so I still don’t know exactly what happened, as her fall was not covered on any of the monitors. But I’m glad to say that both she and the horse are well.

“There’s no doubt we did very well to have three Olympic clear rounds in pretty good time, and if we get three clears tomorrow we can say it has been a pretty good event for us. There’s no doubt we are better in dressage than before, but we’ve got to get even better, for if we’d had lower dressage penalties on the first day then we’d be higher up the ladder at this stage.”

• There will be two rounds of showjumping on Tuesday. The first round (1.25m) is for combinations who pass the vet check. The top three scores for each country will counting, and this will decide the team medals.

Then the top 25 riders over the three phases – including the first jumping round – jump another round over a 1.3m track. There is a limit of three riders per country in this round. The individual eventing medal winners are those who have scored the least penalties over the competition.

 

Rk	Team	Result	+
1	Germany	124.70	+
2	Great Britain	130.20	+
3	Sweden	131.40	+
4	New Zealand	133.40	+
5	United States	155.20	+
6	Australia	173.40	+
7	France	177.70	+
8	Ireland	178.80	+
9	Belgium	185.80	+
10	Brazil	269.20	+
11	Netherlands	1136.70	+
12	Canada	1177.40	+
13	Japan	1191.00