German Eventers Take Team, Indie Gold

By Staff Report July 31, 2012

 

German eventers mined their frontrunner status into Olympic Gold, winning both the team and individual medals. Michael Jung won the individual Gold on Sam, and made history as the first rider to hold the European, World and dual Olympic titles simultaneously. And he did it all on his 30th birthday!

“You always dream that when everything goes perfectly you can win gold, but I never dreamed I’d have two,” Jung said following today’s double clear show jumping rounds at what was his first Olympics competition.

Jung admitted he had been resigned to winning silver up until the final minutes of round two in show jumping. The last rider to enter the ring,  Sweden’s Sara Algotsson-Ostholt, seemed poised to become the first woman to win the individual eventing title, but she and her grey mare, Wega, had a rail at the final fence.

Sweden took team Silver and New Zealand team Bronze. Team USA placed 7th in Eventing; Karen O’Connor and Mr. Mendicott were the top-placed U.S. pair in Individual Eventing, at 14.

Standing with Jung on the individual podium were Algotsson Ostholt (SWE) with the silver and Sandra Auffarth (GER) with bronze.

Jung described his Trakkhener stallion, La Biosethetique Sam, as “small with plenty of thoroughbred speed.”

As for the rest of the U.S. team, Phillip Dutton and Mystery Whisper at 23; Will Coleman and Twizzle at 37; Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister at 40.

Boyd Martin withdrew Otis Barbotiere after the morning jog. Said the the horse appeared to have sore legs following the cross country; attributed it to a combination of very hard ground and possible over-studding. (The terrain was quite hilly and it had rained the previous day). They were among 21 horse and rider teams that didn’t make the final jumping round.

Team Results here.

Individual Results here.

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