After two days of rain here in the Île-de-France at the 2024 Paris Olympics, it was sunny and cool-ish with temps beginning in the high 50s and ending the day near 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) yesterday during the cross-country phase of eventing. Although there was plenty of mud in the walking paths for the estimated over 40,000 spectators arriving here, the galloping track on course looked to be fairly nice―not too hard, not too muddy, but perhaps sticky in a couple of spots.
Designed by Frenchman Pierre Le Goupil, the course was just under 3.2 miles (5,149 meters) and contained 28 obstacles with 41 jumping efforts. Placed on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, the track ran along the picturesque Grand Canal with the Palace in the background in some places, and through the woods where royalty once hunted deer and other game. The prescribed speed was 570 meters/minute with a time allowed of 9 minutes 2 seconds.
As always in this sport, especially with the current super-intense format of Olympic eventing, the story of the day boiled down to “it was the best of times and worst of times” to paraphrase Charles Dickens. There were some spectacular rounds, the current leader Germany’s Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH among them; they pulled ahead of Great Britain’s Laura Collett and London 52 by 0.5 going double clear when Collett and London had 0.8 time penalties.
Cross-Country Stats
Only 10 horse and rider combos out of 64 made it round within the time. In addition to Jung they were: Christopher Burton and Shadow Man (AUS), currently in third; Felix Vogg and Dao de L’Ocean (SUI) currently in fourth; Yoshiaki Oiwa and MGH Grafton Street (JPN), currently in fifth; Tom McEwan and JL Dublin (GBR) currently in sixth; Kazuma Tomoto and Vinci de la Vigne (JPN) currently in eighth; Karim Florent Laghouag and Triton Fontaine (FRA) currently in 10th; Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue (IRL) currently in 14th; Janneke Boonzaaijer and Champ De Tailleur (NED) currently in 16th; and Frida Andersen and Box Leo (SWE) currently in 20th.
Looking at the cross-country fence analysis, there were two rider falls (Ronald Zabala (ECU) at fence 23a and Christopher Wahler (GER) at 16a, and one horse fall (Portuguese rider Manuel Grave’s horse Carat De Bremoy at fence 3; I saw them both walking back to the stables looking unharmed). There were 13 refusals total, with one pair being eliminated due to three refusals (Polish rider Jan Kaminski on Jard). Six horse and rider pairs missed flags for 15 penalties each. One rider was eliminated by the Ground Jury (Finnish rider Sanna Siltakorpi on Bofey Click).
Kevin McNab from Australia retired on Don Quidam on course between fences 11 and 12. The horse was taken to hospital for evaluation and the Australian Team issued a statement that he had a soft tissue injury and was being treated.
Another thing of note was that after the dressage phase, Brazilian rider Carols Parro, who rode Safira, was issued a yellow card by the FEI for using rollkur in training which is defined by the FEI as causing “unnecessary discomfort” to the horse; the issue was reported to the FEI by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 51st place after dressage, he was allowed to run cross-country and finished the day in 42nd place after 22.4 time penalties.
Team Standings
Team Great Britain headed into cross-country with a comfortable 14.5-point lead over the French Team but by the end of the day the story was quite different. Great Britain’s Rosalind Canter and Lordships Graffalo were assessed a 15-point penalty for missing a flag on fence 21D (other than that they went clear and inside the time; later Canter filed an official protest on the matter, but the ground jury denied her request).
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With all three French pairs jumping around cleanly—one of them with no time penalties— they closed the gap significantly and are now only are only 4.7 points (just over one show jumping rail) behind the British Team after cross-country (87.20). In addition to Laghouag’s double clear, the other two French riders had only a few time penalties (Stephane Landoisé and Chaman Dumontceau, 2.8 time penalties for 7th place after cross-country, and Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe, 3.2 time penalties for 11th place).
Japan was another headliner yesterday. The Japanese have been working incredibly hard on achieving equestrian success in recent years and just missed the podium in Tokyo, finishing fourth there. They took the bronze medal spot after cross-country yesterday on 93.8, 8.6 points ahead of fourth-place Switzerland (102.40). After his teammates went double clear, Japanese rider Ryuzo Kitajima riding Cekatinka jumped clear on cross-country but they were assessed 6.4 time penalties putting them in 28th after cross-country.
Then, there was an unfortunate turn of events for the Japanese Team this morning in the second horse inspection when Kitajima’s horse Cekatinka was sent to the hold box where the Japanese Team decided to withdraw the mare and not re-present. In order to stay in the team competition, they opted to substitute reserve rider Toshiyuki Tanaka and Jefferson and took a 20-point penalty. This dropped them into fourth place (113.80) behind Switzerland before show jumping.
Beyond the top four team places after cross-country, this is where the other countries stood: Belgium, fifth; New Zealand, sixth; Sweden, seventh; Ireland, eighth; the USA ninth; the Netherlands, 10th; Canada, 11th; Brazil 12th; Italy, 13th; Germany; 14th; Australia; 15th; Poland 16th.
The USA team, two of which were mounted on very young horses (Caroline Pamukcu’s HSH Blake at 9 years old and Liz Halliday’s Nutcracker at 10) had a credible go on cross-country, in general. But, in an unlucky turn, Pamukcu and Blake miscommunicated at fence 16c which caused a refusal, adding 20 penalty points to their score; the rest of their round was quite good, but they also had time penalties (12) to stand in 47th after cross-country. Halliday and Nutcracker and Boyd Martin and Fedarman B jumped around clear, but incurred time penalties (1.6 penalties for 17th place for Martin and 6 penalties for Halliday for 22nd place).
Martin spoke well of Fedarman B’s effort on course, “He’s an absolute legend. He just was brilliant every step of the way; I couldn’t have asked for anything more today. He gave me his heart and soul, and got a little tired over the last three fences, but he just dug deep and kept going. I was very, very pleased with him,” said Martin.
Chef d’Equipe Bobby Costello commented the team’s cross-country rounds, “[Caroline] had a great round the rest of the way around after the miscommunication at the 16 combination. Both Liz and Boyd really did the U.S. proud. I think they all did. It was just a real shame for Caroline that happened. We’re incredibly disappointed at the result to be honest, because we have put in so much work to be more competitive here. I think it shows why this Olympic format is, for better or worse, intense; it’s completely unforgiving, and that’s the game we came to play today, and it didn’t go our way.”
Going into Sunday’s show jumping phase, the Australian, Brazilian, German, Irish and Polish Teams each had to take the hard hit of penalty points substituting in new riders, each after losing one team member on cross-country (with Australia’s McNab retiring his horse on course due to the injury, Germany’s Wahler falling off, and the Polish rider being eliminated due to refusals) or because one of their horses was not presented for inspection today (see below). This dropped each team way down in the rankings and will be quite hard to recover from today.
Also, replacing a team member before cross-country yesterday, and thus incurring penalty points, was Italy when blood was discovered in the mouth of Emiliano Portale’s horse Future after their dressage ride on Friday resulting in their elimination due to the FEI’s “no blood” rule.
Eventing Second Horse Inspection
In this morning’s eventing second horse inspection, three horses were sent to the hold box, two from Japan (Kitajima’s Cekatinka which was withdrawn as already mentioned and Yoshiaki Oiwa’s horse MGH Grafton Street who was re-presented and passed) and Australian rider Shane Rose’s horse Virgil which was passed on re-inspection. Four horses that had finished cross-country yesterday were not presented for inspection, three of which were team horses causing substitutions: McNab’s Don Quidam (AUS); Sarah Ennis’ Action Lady M (IRE); Parro’s Safira (BRA); Sanna Siltakorpi’s Bofey Click (FIN, riding as an individual), and Carlos Diaz Fernandez’ Taraje CP 21.10 (ESP, riding as an individual).
Eventing Show Jumping Phase Preview
Today, there will be two rounds of show jumping, the first to determine team medals and a qualifier to move on for the second individual round. This is because Olympic rules do not allow an athlete to earn two separate medals for one performance. Then, the top 25 horse and rider combinations come back an hour and a half later to jump again for individual medals. Then, team and individual medal ceremonies will happen.
The eventing jumping team final and individual qualifier begins at 5 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, and the individual final begins at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. NBC’s Peacock and NBCOlympics.com will livestream the competition.
◆ Team Start List
◆ Individual Start List
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