Brits Win Olympic Gold

By Staff Report August 6, 2012

The British show jumping team clinched Olympic Gold today, fending off a fierce challenge by the Netherlands that was settled in a jump-off with the Silver-winning Dutch team. Saudi Arabia took  Bronze.

The sky may have been darkening, but the mood of the crowd was decidedly bright as 23,000 cheering fans gave a standing ovation to the U.K.’s first Olympic Team Gold in 60 years. They won decisively with four clear jump off rounds. The Netherlands accumulated 12 penalties in the first three rides.

Switzerland was fourth; Canada fifth. The U.S. tied for sixth with Sweden, with Rich Fellers and Flexible picking up their first penalties of the games: eight faults. Brazil was eighth.

U.K. team anchor Nick Skelton and Big Star have emerged from three individual rounds of show jumping with zero penalties. He is one of only three riders to head into the Wednesday, Aug. 8 individual final in that enviable position; the other two are Mikael van der Vleuten (Verdi) and Marc Houtzager (Tamino) of NED.

Overall, it was a very exiting two-days of show jumping in a Nation’s Cup format that saw the top eight really tussling it out. Only eight of the 51 starters had clear rounds.

Course designer Bob Ellis’ “maritime theme” for today’s track made it a battle at sea. The highly imaginative jumps included a White Cliffs” water jump, a triple combination decorated in naval signal flags and an architectural masterpiece modeled after the Old Royal Naval College and Queens House.  Thirteen  obstacles totaling 16 efforts on the main course ― mainly single fences with lots of curvy lines, but a very challenging triple combination that saw many rails hit the ground (particularly from the middle element) and one double, a tall fence to an oxer, themed to “Greenwich Meantime.”

U.S. show jumping team chef d’equipe George Morris was heard to say during the course walk Sunday that “the only words expression you can use is, it’s a work of art.” Challenging art! The rails were all in flat cups.

The difficulty of the course was evidenced by the somewhat unpredictable results. The top four show jumpers in the world, according to the Rolex FEI rankings, were all absent from the team podium. Among the top 10, only  Skelton (Rolex  No. 5) was represented.

Twenty-seven-year-old U.K. rider Scott Brash has made it through three rounds at his first Olympics with only eight faults. And while the British were being given favorable odds from the onset, Saudi Arabia’s strong showing was largely a surprise. It consolidates a growing momentum among Middle Eastern riders in the show jumping world.

Although after a wobbly start in the first qualifier (which did not count for team points) the U.S. managed to regain its footing by getting into the Nations Cup, (a feat talented nations like Germany and France were unable to achieve), it just never got to firing on all cylinders.

But the herculean effort that would have been necessary to pull Team USA out of the basement never materialized. Reed Kessler had 12 points, making her the drop score. But in this second half of the Nation’s Cup, McLain Ward and Rich Fellers each had eight.

His tight turn to fence 6, a liverpool that paid homage to the Thames River, seemed to give Flexible a rough launch; his hind leg barely touched the red-and-white rail, but with flat cups a stiff breeze will knock ‘er down (see course chart below). Fence 8, the Lord Nelson Column, was Fellers’ other bette noire, with the front rail on the oxer falling.

Ward scored faults at fence 2 (which he was the first drop (and the U.K.’s Scott Brash had down in the jump-off) and the middle element of the triple, knicking the front off the oxer.

Madden was  the top performer of the day, with four faults (fence 11, the Maritime Navigation oxer featuring a huge globe).

For her part, Kessler, who was third in for the U.S., had a “toe in the tub” at the water jump, clipped the top off the tall, vertical “Cutty Sark” and, tragically, had a rail on exit, between the twin-cupolaed Old Royal Naval House that was the 13th and final question on the course.

Combined with the first round’s effort team USA had a team total of 28 penalties when all was said and done.

Rich Fellers and Flexible and McLain Ward and Antares still have a shot at individual medals on Wednesday.

Britain’s last Team Gold at an Olympics  was in Helsinki in 1952, with riders Harry Llewellyn, Whilf White and Duggie Stewart.

To watch a replay of this event, click here.

For complete individual results, click here.

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