It was so close. We could almost see that elusive gold medal, hanging around the necks of our brave, wonderful New Zealand eventing team.
All that had to happen was for Sir Mark Todd and Leonidas II to show jump, ideally clear, but a single rail was still okay. Four rails was not. Poor Toddy. He knew he had the weight of the nation on his shoulders, and he knew that on this occasion, he was unable to deliver.
“Sorry,” was the first thing he was able to say afterwards. “We put ourselves in a medal position. Jonelle jumped a nice round with two down, Clarke jumped a great clear. It was there. If I had jumped clear we were looking at gold.
“But I knew just before I went down [to the arena] that my horse was not relaxed, and looking around, a little bit wild. The further we went, the worse he got… he went rigid in his back and stopped jumping.
“He had the first rail down and I thought, ‘Don’t panic, stay calm, we’ve still got a medal’. But then the next one came down, and then the next one… then it’s just survival to get home. He’s never jumped like that before, and I don’t know what to say.”
Leo is a “funny, temperamental sort of horse” but as Mark says, he has been in plenty of big atmospheres before, and it’s never been a problem. He came out of the stable fresh and happy after yesterday’s cross-country exertions, and “felt amazing” in the warm-up.
“I just feel really disappointed for the other guys, for the whole team, the girls and guys who look after the horses, the support crew… it was down to me to deliver, and it didn’t happen.”
France are the new Olympic eventing champions, with exemplary performances in all three phases, including three out of four show jumping clear today. Their leading rider, Astier Nicolas, is one of just two to finish the teams part of the competition on his dressage score, and now sits in individual silver position, behind none other than Michael Jung of Germany.
Michael’s effortless clear with the extraordinary Sam was one of three for the Germans; Ingrid Klimke and Sandra Auffarth put yesterday’s disappointments behind them, and propelled their team into silver.
Australia will be somewhat disappointed they were unable to capitalise on New Zealand’s misfortune, with their leading rider Chris Burton taking two rails, to add to Stuart Tinney’s four and Sam Griffiths’ clear. But they held on for bronze, just 3.5pen ahead of New Zealand.
Now for the what-ifs. What if Tim Price’s horse hadn’t had that ridiculously unlucky slip? What if Jonelle’s mare hadn’t boiled over in dressage, or had left one more rail in the cups? What if they hadn’t taken the 20 penalties off Sandra’s cross-country score after the protest? What if, what if, what if? There are always what ifs.
But that’s the nature of our sport. It’s ruthless. It requires a bit of luck on top of all that skill. We are still immensely proud of our riders, their horses and our team. And now it’s all about Clarke and Balmoral Sensation who have performed utterly brilliantly. They now sit in individual fifth place, 5.7pen adrift of the podium.
Clarke and Ritchie have a perfect record over the coloured poles, and have every chance of maintaining it. We just hope he doesn’t feel the weight of four and a half million people in the saddle with him.
