Tom Tarver and his NZ warmblood Popeye are set to make their Olympic debut tonight in the first round of the teams competition at the Tokyo Games.
Tom and the much-admired grey, who was such a character of the NZ jumping circuit, are stepping up in place of Uma O’Neill, who competed for New Zealand in the individual competition.
The change is among a large number of substitutions and several withdrawals made by various nations, either due to team tactics or horse injury.
One of the biggest blows is to the British team; medal favourite Scott Brash has announced a minor strain to his starry Jefferson. They will be replaced by Holly Smith riding Denver, who will join Harry Charles and Romeo 88 in their mission to help Ben Maher and Explosion W add a team gold to the individual medal he won two nights ago.
Kilkenny, the horse of Irish rider Cian O’Connor who suffered a gruesome-looking nosebleed in the second individual round, has been withdrawn from the competition.
Fortunately for New Zealand, Daniel Meech’s Cinca 3, who was eliminated from the individual final under the ‘blood rule’ for having a minor nick on her side, was accepted at the second inspection and will be allowed to jump tonight. Although the New Zealand team officials protested the elimination, they were not successful under the FEI’s strict rule that sees horses automatically eliminated for blood in the mouth or on the sides (and presumably rider-inflected) but not for a nosebleed.
Further changes may be made before the competition begins, but to date the confirmed pre-competition changes are as follows:
For Argentina, Fabian Sejanes is out and Matias Albarracin comes in.
For Belgium, Niels Bruynseels is out and Pieter Devos comes in.
For Brazil, Yuri Mansur is out and Pedro Veniss comes in.
For China, You Zhang is out and Yaofeng Li comes in.
For Czech Republic, Kamil Papousek is out and Ondrej Zvara comes in.
For Egypt, Abdel Said is out and Mohamed Talaat comes in.
For France, Mathieu Billot is out and Simon Delestre comes in.
For Great Britain, Scott Brash is out, his horse was withdrawn and therefore not presented, Holly Smith comes in.
For Germany, Christian Kukuk is out and Maurice Tebbel comes in.
For Ireland, Cian O’Connor is out, his horse was withdrawn and therefore not presented, Shane Sweetnam comes in.
For Morocco, Ali Ahrach’s horse USA de Riverland is out and will be replaced by Golden Lady.
For Mexico, Manuel Gonzalez Dufrane is out and Patricia Pasquel comes in .
For New Zealand, Uma O’Neill is out and Tom Tarver-Priebe comes in.
For Switzerland, Beat Mandli is out and Bryan Balsiger comes in.
For USA, Kent Farrington is out and McLain Ward comes in..
A total of 19 teams will compete in the first team competition and the order of go is as follows:
1, Czech Republic; 2, China; 3, Japan; 4, Israel; 5, Mexico; 6, Argentina; 7, Morocco; 8, New Zealand; 9, Ireland; 10, Egypt; 11, France; 12, Sweden; 13, USA; 14, Great Britain; 15, Brazil; 16, Switzerland; 17, Belgium; 18, Germany; 19, Netherlands.
The competition will begin at 10pm (NZ time) local time and the best 10 teams will qualify for Saturday night’s team final.
