As New Zealand’s hopes faded fast under the Tokyo arena lights, eventing crowned a new Olympic Champion – Germany’s Julia Krajewski is first woman in history to hold the title.
And Great Britain’s Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen were in a league of their own, cruising to team gold. It was their country’s fourth team title but it’s been a very long wait since Richard Meade, Mary Gordon-Watson, Bridget Parker and Mark Phillips stood top of the podium a full 49 years ago in Munich in 1972. Australia took the silver, while the defending champions from France claimed the bronze.
In the battle for the minor individual podium places, Britain’s Tom McEwen took the silver while Australia’s Andrew Hoy clinched the bronze – a sensation result as the three-time team gold medallist has a record of participation at eight Olympic Games dating all the way back to Los Angeles in 1984. He was only 25 back then, and now at 62 he’s as competitive as ever.
Tom was the first rider out for the Brits, and his easy, confident clear on Toledo de Kerser paved the way for his team mates.
A four-fence advantage had the Brits comfortably ahead; they used up a little of that cushion when second-out, Laura had a scary moment when her horse London 52 spooked at the water tray at fence four and scattered poles everywhere before regaining his equilibrium. “He started like his normal self but just as I came around the corner the light shone on the water and he suddenly started to draw back and I was quite far off it and he just went up and paddled. I was lucky he’s such a great jumper and it didn’t faze him and he got it back together and finished really nicely. I’m gutted and it’s a shame but I think it could have been a whole lot worse!” she says.
Oliver, who at that stage was heading the individual rankings as well, was the final rider to tackle the beautifully-decorated track, and though the first element of the double hit the floor, Team GB was on a score of 86.3 and under no threat.
The real battle was played out for silver and bronze. Kevin McNab opened the Aussie assault with a foot-perfect run with Don Quidam before Shane Rose’s Virgil had the first element of fence nine. Meanwhile Nicolas Touzaint and Absolut Gold who were part of the gold medal winning French side at the Rio 2016 Games returned with just 0.4 for time, while second-line rider Karim Florent Laghouag faulted only at the first element of the triple combination.
The two sides had the started the day with a hair’s breadth between them, and when both their anchor riders – Christopher Six for France and Andrew Hoy for Australia – were clear, the men from Downunder had bagged the silver by 1.3 penalties.
New Zealand had started the final day in fourth, with hopes of a medal finish, but unfortunately we were just too far behind after the first two phases. Even with three clear rounds, we would have remained fourth.
As it happened, Jesse Campbell was clear with Diachello, just collecting 0.4 time penalty, and Jonelle’s Grovine de Reve was clear. Tim’s Vitali, unfortunately, didn’t seem his usual self and had three rails down, thus scuppering his rider’s individual chances as well, and dropping our team to fifth behind Germany, whose riders were all double clear.
Individual final
The individual final seemed a step too far for many of the horses, who were understandably very tired at the end of several long, hot days of competition. The top 25 had returned for a second, mercifully shortened, show jumping round – this quirk of format is because under Olympic rules it is not permitted for two medals to be awarded for the same performance.
Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto gave the host nation something to celebrate when he collected just 0.4 penalties, when seventh-last to go with the lovely Vinci de la Vigne, and when France’s Christopher Six faulted at the last of the triple combination, ‘King Kazuma’ began to move up the order – he was ultimately fourth.
Laura’s horse had two down, then when Andrew’s superb Anglo-Arab, Vassily de Lassos, answered with a clear, the top three had no breathing space. There were two Brits and a German left in the game, and while Tom’s luck held with another clear, Oliver’s luck ran out, with a rail and a couple of time faults pushing him off the podium.
Last in, Julia could have been completely overwhelmed but held her nerve to deliver a fabulous round from her mare, taking the top step of the podium and her place in equestrian history.
For their second rounds, Jonelle had two rails and a time fault, finishing the best of our team in 11th place individually. Jesse also had two down, to drop to 22nd place, while poor Tim had five down, finishing 24th.
