Jung Takes Narrow Lead, Great Britain Holds Top Spot After Olympic Cross-Country

Paris—July 28

At recent championships, the cross-country phase has been haunting Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, they were leading after dressage but triggered a pin on cross-country, incurring 11 penalties, and two years later at the FEI European Eventing Championships (France), the German rider fell from Chipmunk at the final water. But at this year’s Paris Olympics, the phase went perfectly.

The pair went double clear, finishing 7 seconds under the optimum time to remain on their dressage score of 17.8. The overnight leader, Laura Collett on London 52 (Great Britain), added 0.8 time penalties to her score to slip into second on a 18.3.

“Today was quite a lot of moments to enjoy,” said Jung. “Chipmunk made it very easy for me. Every time, the jump was easy. He was so well listening and connected to me. And he was so powerful, galloping. I checked the time and said, ‘OK, we have more time on the next fence. Slow down, slow down.’ It was unbelievable feeling. I’m so thankful to have such good horses and to be in my fourth Olympic Games. It’s a dream. And it’s always a special feeling.”

Like many of the riders, Jung described the noise around the course as “unbelievable.” The course was roped such that the spectators were quite close to the riders, and the crowd was enthusiastic, cheering for all the riders from the time they left the start box to when they crossed the finish line.

“So many people are here watching the course, it’s fantastic,” he said. “Especially on the warm-up, many people. I was a bit scared [at] first, but they are a little quiet. So it’s a very good place to warm up the horses. … So this is very good, but outside they are very loud and everywhere on the place, but in the end you see more [spectators] when you look [at] the television as when you’re on the course.”

The German team had a disappointing day after sitting second after dressage. While lead rider Julia Krajewski, who was also first on course, put in a clear round with 4.8 time penalties on Nickel 21, their second rider Christoph Wahler parted ways with Carjatan S at 16ABCD after the gelding put a foot in the ditch after the drop. While that pair is eliminated, the German team can continue to show jumping, but they have been awarded 200 penalty points for the elimination.

“He just stepped into the ditch with his hind leg, and then I got bumped out of the saddle,” said Wahler, who is competing in his first Olympics. “He was going brilliantly before. Thank God he’s absolutely fine. He’s just wondering why it was such a short course. I wish it wouldn’t have happened today, but I guess there’s not much more to say, and I can’t really tell you why it happened. I think we went down the step OK, had a short three strides, which was the plan and then just sort of stepped into it.”

Wahler wasn’t the only rider to have trouble with the ditch after the drop, and course designer Pierre Le Goupil believed the light at that part of the course may have played a factor.

“There were no major problems,” he said. “It just made it a little bit more unclear for the horses. We saw funny jumps, but I wouldn’t say that we saw anything very nasty or dirty.”

Jung said that while it’s fantastic to go into tomorrow’s two show jumping rounds (one for the team and one for individual medals), he’s not going to think too much about it.

“At the moment, it’s time to enjoy; it’s a dream. Today, just today. Tomorrow, it’s a new day,” he said. “I try to really focus. I try to go step by step through the day not thinking to prize-giving or something after. I just concentrate. To the vet check, to the first jumping, to the second jumping, step by step, and I have a great feeling. He’s super fit; in the finish, he’s not a little tired. He’s looking like he can go again. So this is very good for tomorrow.”

Though time penalties moved Collett and “Dan” to second, Collett was thrilled with her gold-medal partner from Tokyo.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “Just the crowds out there are unbelievable. From start to finish it was such a buzz, and London is just my horse of a lifetime. He’s just incredible.”

The British team was ninth in the rotation, and Collett was the second rider out for their team, so she took the time to really consider some of her options, including the troublesome ditch.

“So [I] changed my mind this morning to jump the left one out, and to be honest, I was always very much wanting to jump left off the drop [at 16ABCD],” she said. “I just felt like the ditch [on the right side] was just a bit of a nothing ditch, and there were too many unknown circumstances there for how they would read it and jump it with only two strides to the triple brush. I just thought that was an unnecessary risk. And I think we saw that with quite a few of the first ones that went; they didn’t really make a mistake, but they didn’t understand the question. So for me that was always plan A, and [I] stuck to it, and it rode really nicely.”

After it rained all day yesterday, there were some questions on how the footing would hold up. Much of the track was “new” grass, planted specifically for the Games to ensure it was proper footing for cross-country, but that meant the root system wasn’t well established and in certain portions of the course that wove through the trees, it could get slippery.

Collett was one of several riders who said they’d lost a shoe while out on course and dealt with some slipping in some places, though most riders pointed out that there was great attention to detail as additional gravel was put down yesterday and throughout the day in places where it was likely to get torn up.

Collett also said the time was quite tight, and while her fellow countryman and pathfinder Tom McEwen jumped inside the time, only 12 of 63 starters finished without time penalties.

“There are a couple of places where you can really let them gallop, but there’s an awful lot of twists and turns, and he lost a shoe and was slipping all over the place, so had to be quite careful on those turns and had really kill the speed a bit to get around the trees and without doing anything stupid like tipping over. So it is gettable, but it is tight,” she said.

Great Britain also retains the lead in the team competition. Though it once looked like it would be quite a large differential, their final rider, Ros Canter on Lordships Graffalo, finished inside the time but received 15 penalties for missing a flag. She was one of six riders who received flag penalties, which are all under review, but could take up to five hours to be finalized, according to event staff. As of time of publication, the Brits go into show jumping on 82.5, but if Canter’s 15 penalties are removed, they will enter show jumping on 67.5. France is in second on 86.2, and Japan is in third on 93.8.

Australia’s Chris Burton entered the cross-country in equal third on Shadow Man. He turned in a double-clear performance, and China’s Alex Hua Tian on Jilsonne Van Bareelhof, who had been tied with him, had a flag and 5.6 time penalties to drop to 32^nd.

“Yeah, it was amazing,” he said. “I’m a bit embarrassed. He just did it so easy. I think you could probably make him a six-star, and he’d do it. He’s a beautiful animal. So thank you to Ben Hobday. He kept banging on about how good it was. … Being able to ride in Paris is a real treat.”

Burton is a three-time Olympian in eventing but took a break for three years to focus on show jumping. He got back into eventing with Shadow Man, who he is competing for the season. Though he’s poised to take his first individual medal, he’s keeping it in perspective.

“I’m trying not to think about that at the moment,” he said. “I don’t want to get too nervous ahead of tomorrow. So we’ll just make sure the horse is OK, and then we’ll give him a little jump in the morning and see how he feels and hopefully I can do my best.”

Australia also ran into some trouble today. Though their pathfinder Shane Rose added just some time penalties on Virgil, their second rider, Kevin McNab, pulled up on course when Don Quidam did not feel right. The gelding was transported to a veterinary clinic.

“Unfortunately we have a soft tissue injury on the front right, which I felt after the fourth [to] last fence. So I stopped, and then we ambulanced him back, but we’ve had it looked at, and he’ll make a full recovery,” he said.

“He actually landed, and he drew back a little bit with the right front,” he added. “And when he did that, I thought I’ll let him travel a minute and just see if it was an awkward landing or if he’s sore, and then it was quite sore. So I let him slow down and stop.”

US Falls To Ninth

The U.S. team didn’t have the day they were looking for, dropping from fifth after dressage to ninth on a 128.5. All three riders had some time penalties, but pathfinders Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake picked up 20 jump penalties at 16ABCD, after the gelding had trouble with the same ditch as Wahler.

“I like being the pathfinder and I like riding for my team, and everything rode to plan, honestly, minus him falling into the ditch,” said the Olympic first-timer. “I expected him jump it, but that’s what a brave and amazing horse he is. He’s fearless. And he trusts me 100%.”

“I don’t for one second put that on her at all,” said Chef d’Equipe Bobby Costello. “It was just a real unfortunate turn of events. … The Germans got caught out there with one of their riders, but as the day went on it became clear either to go left or there was a more specific way to ride that right-hand side. She had a great round the rest of the way around, and both Liz and Boyd really did the U.S. proud. I think they all did. It was just a real shame for Caroline that that happened to her. We’re incredibly disappointed at the final result. I think it shows why this Olympic format is, for better or worse, intense; it’s completely unforgiving, and that’s the game we came to play today, and it didn’t go our way.”

Following that fence Pamukcu said she slowed down to make sure she made it home safely.

“I’m the counting score at the end of the day no matter what, so I have to make sure that my score counts,” she said.

Liz Halliday, who is also competing in her first Olympics, finished with 6 time penalties on Nutcracker. They are now 22^nd on a 34.0.

“It feels great to have it done,” she said. “They always say, ‘What’s your favorite jump?’ And I always say the last.”

Due to the ground conditions, Halliday said she didn’t go as fast as she might have.

“The ground is definitely influential,” she said. “I had huge studs in, and he still slipped on me pretty early on. And I just sort of said, ‘OK, this is not the day to fall on the flat,’ and I would say that is where all my time faults came from, was just being a little bit careful on the turns because he’s a big powerful horse and powers up behind, and I just really wanted to get the job done well, because it’s also his future. But honestly, all the jumps rode to plan. And he was outstanding.”

Boyd Martin is the top-ranked U.S. rider with Fedarman B in 17^th place on a 32.1. They added just 1.6 time penalties to their dressage score.

“He’s an absolute legend,” he said. “He just was brilliant every step of the way; I couldn’t have asked for anything more today. He gave me his heart and soul and got a little tired over the last three fences, but he just dug deep and kept going. I was very, very pleased with him.”

The pair has a great show jumping record, with just one rail in all of their Fédération Equestre Internationale starts, which could bode well if they jump both rounds tomorrow.

“That’s our strongest phase,” he said. “Saying that, I used him pretty hard today. So I’m hoping that I didn’t take too much energy out of him. But I had him fit, so I’m expecting him to bounce back strong.”

All three U.S. horses have strong show jumping records, so Costello hoped they’d be in a better position.

“They all have shown time and again that they can jump clear rounds, and I expect that to happen tomorrow,” he said. “It’s just a bummer that we’re not in a place right now where it looks like we can necessarily use that to our advantage, but absolutely anything can happen. Anything can happen overnight. Anything can happen, just freak things happen as we saw today, all the time. We certainly are not going to crawl in a hole; we’re just going to come out tomorrow with a fresh mindset for the day and just finish up as strongly and in the best place that we possibly can.”

Overall, Le Goupil was pleased with how the day unfolded.

“it’s nearly 50/50 clear rounds,” he said. “Time has been obviously influential. My feeling is that they were all riding pretty well. And so that was very impressive. It didn’t look too, you know, dirty, like sometimes is tough. It’s difficult. Horses were jumping well, there were a couple of incidents. Obviously, it was not a very, very difficult or very challenging track, but there were plenty of little locations to make mistakes. And that’s what happened at some points.”

All horses will participate in the horse inspection tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET). The first round of show jumping, which will decide team medals and also serve as the individual qualifier, will take place at 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET) and the individual final, which will consist of the top 25 riders, will be at 3:00 p.m. (9 a.m. ET).

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