France clinch team eventing for first Rio gold
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RIO DE JANEIRO: France won the gold medal in eventing on Tuesday in a dramatic show jumping final, rising two places after the cross country phase when riders from Australia and New Zealand knocked rails down at the Deodoro equestrian centre.
Double-clear showjumping rounds helped France secure their second title in the three-discipline event, including dressage, cross country and show jumping, after Athens in 2004 with a score of 169 points.
Nicolas Astier rode Piaf de b’Neville and Thibaut Vallette was on Qing du Briot for the win. France also included Mathieu Lemoine on Bart L.
Defending champions Germany, which was bidding for a third straight Olympic title, took silver with 172.80 points, climbing from fourth after cross country on Monday and helped by superb double-clear rounds for reigning world champions Sandra Auffarth and Opgun Louvo, Ingrid Klimke and Hale-Bob OLD, and Olympic champion Michael Jung and Sam FBW.
Australia, who had topped the standings after the dressage and cross country, came in third on 175.30 after Christopher Burton put two rails down. Sam Griffiths went clear but Stuart Tinney had 16 jumping and one time penalties.
New Zealand, who were in the running for silver after cross country, fell to fourth after a seven-time Olympian Mark Todd knocked three rails down.
Great Britain accrued just four penalties in the show jumping phase, but finished fifth after struggling in the cross country on Monday.
In addition to determining the team medals, the morning jumping round also served as a qualifier for a final jumping round to determine individual medals later on Tuesday afternoon.
Australia had led the team competition after the cross-country leg, but with the elimination of Shane Rose, the team had to count all three rounds in the jumping final.
Tinney had 17 penalties on Pluto Mio, which put Australia out of first place. Griffiths then went clear on his horse Paulank Brockagh to put Australia back in the race for gold.
It set up a frantic finish, where a clear round from German Jung put his team in the gold medal position, only for France to take over with a clear from Astier.
Olympic eventing legend Todd — who won his first of two individual titles in Los Angeles in 1984 — had a chance to give New Zealand the lead, but he had four rails down on Leonidas II to push the team out of the medals.
The final competitor Chris Burton — who had led the individual competition after the cross-country — had a chance to give Australia the gold with a clear round. He had two rails down, however, leaving his team in the bronze medal position and securing the Olympic title for France.
Medals table
As at 9:30pm (PST) on Tuesday
(Tabulated under: gold, silver, bronze, total):
United States 5 7 7 19
China 5 3 5 13
Australia 4 0 4 8
Italy 3 4 2 9
Japan 3 0 7 10
Hungary 3 0 0 3
Russia 2 5 3 10
South Korea 2 2 1 5
Thailand 2 1 1 4
Britain 1 1 2 4
Brazil 1 1 0 2
France 1 1 0 2
Sweden 1 1 0 2
Taiwan 1 0 2 3
Belgium 1 0 1 2
Argentina 1 0 0 1
Colombia 1 0 0 1
Croatia 1 0 0 1
Kosovo 1 0 0 1
Netherlands 1 0 0 1
Vietnam 1 0 0 1
Indonesia 0 2 0 2
New Zealand 0 2 0 2
South Africa 0 2 0 2
Canada 0 1 3 4
Kazakhstan 0 1 2 3
Ukraine 0 1 1 2
Azerbaijan 0 1 0 1
Denmark 0 1 0 1
Germany 0 1 0 1
Mongolia 0 1 0 1
North Korea 0 1 0 1
Philippines 0 1 0 1
Uzbekistan 0 0 2 2
Georgia 0 0 1 1
Greece 0 0 1 1
Poland 0 0 1 1
Portugal 0 0 1 1
Spain 0 0 1 1
Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2016
