At the Olympic Games in Paris, held in the Palace Gardens of Versailles, today’s programme featured the cross-country stage for the eventing riders – and, as is customary in this premier discipline, this once again threw the provisional rankings into disarray.
However, the British team – which includes two Holsteiners – remains on course for gold: After London by Landos-Quinar (Ocke Riewerts, Föhr), line 3200, and Laura Collett had made Olympic history with their dressage performance, they incurred only a few time penalty points in the cross-country as well. They added 0.8 penalty points to their score, meaning they had to cede the position of overnight leader in the individual standings to Michael Jung and Chipmunk.
JL Dublin by Diarado-Canto (Volker Götsche-Götze, Groß Buchwald), line 1907, and Tom McEwen (GBR) finished within the time limit and without faults, meaning they currently lie sixth in the individual standings – the second-best result for Holsteiners at present.
Unfortunately, Team Germany’s hopes of a medal were dashed by a fall involving Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S by Clearway-Galant vert xx (Carl-Friedrich Söhrmann, Groß Buchwald), line 6788. The ten-year-old gelding Nickel by Numero Uno-Lorentin I (Hindrick Stüvel, Rosengarten), line 4303, delivered a top performance on his Olympic debut with Julia Krajewski in the saddle. The pair completed the cross-country course as if on a string and crossed the finish line with just 4.8 time penalty points – placing 14th ahead of the show jumping.
“I’m incredibly proud of Nickel. Another step up, and he just went for it!” said Julia Krajewski of her Aachen winner. “He was fit right to the end; we were only a few seconds over the time limit. In the starting box, I said to him, ‘Come on, let’s do this together.’ And he said, ‘Yes, let’s do it’.”
“Julia was breathtakingly good. She also put on a masterclass in show jumping here with a young horse. She rode the jumps perfectly. She managed the horse’s energy superbly. I’m incredibly proud of both of them. The horse performed outstandingly,” enthused national coach Thomsen.
All the results from the cross-country day here:
Photo by Stefan Lafrentz: JL Dublin and Tom McEwen
