Paris—July 27
As he has done so often in the past, Great Britain’s Tom McEwen leads eventing dressage at the lunch break on the first day of competition at the Olympic Games. He scored a 25.8 with JL Dublin to hold a slight lead over Belgium’s Karin Donckers and Leipheimer Van’t Verahof (26.6). Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Nickel 21 are in third on 26.9.
“ ‘Dubs’ was awesome, amazing,” said McEwen. “He loves an atmosphere, and I must say, he really lit up in the trot a little bit more than I was expecting, and then actually was super relaxed in the walk, which then caught me out from the first change. So I was expecting when I picked up the canter to have a little bit more electricity underneath me, and actually, like Dubs always is, he was very relaxed and very happy. So sadly missed that first change, but then after that, we picked it right back up where we left off, but hopefully putting Great Britain in a great, strong starting position, which is our main goal. Now my aim is to support the girls and finish on that score.”
Of the teams that had two riders compete before the lunch break, Germany leads on a 56.3 with the U.S. second on a 58.4. Liz Halliday, who was last before the break, is the top-ranked U.S. rider so far, sitting in fourth on 28.0 with Nutcracker.
“I’m absolutely thrilled with how my young horse performed in there,” she said of the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse. “He was spectacular.
“I think he’s actually really taken a big leap forward in just the last two weeks in some of his work, and I’ve sort of changed around some things, just tried to make him more relaxed and just really let it flow,” she added. “And I think that’s helped. Still need a little bit of work on the changes, of course, but they are improving, and this is a difficult test for a 10-year-old horse. I’m thrilled with that.”
Halliday received a late call-up Friday morning before the first horse inspection after Will Coleman had to withdraw.
“It’s a really odd place to be in emotionally,” she said. “Because the first thing I felt was devastation for Will, because I’ve been there, before Tokyo I was in this spot, and I didn’t get to go [when Deniro Z sustained an injury before the Games], and so you’re overwhelmed with the fact that you move into the spot and also overwhelmed with sadness for your teammate, who equally earned his spot here. And then it’s time to sort of get to business, and it goes from shock to, oh my gosh, to OK, now I’m going to just be a competitor again.”
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Caroline Pamucku and HSH Blake are in ninth place of the 30 horses to go before lunch with a score of 30.40.
The final U.S. rider, Boyd Martin on Fedarman B, will go down centerline at 5:03 p.m. local time (11:03 a.m. Eastern). Reigning gold medalists Great Britain still have two of their riders to go: Laura Collett (London 52) at 2:27 p.m. (8:21 a.m. Eastern) and Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo) 5:21 p.m. (11:21 a.m. Eastern). Germany’s final rider, former Olympic champion Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH will ride at 4:18 p.m. (10:18 a.m. Eastern).
Italian rider Emiliano Portale was eliminated after blood was found in the mouth of his mount Future.
“Elimination under this Rule does not imply that there was any intention to hurt or harm the horse, but the FEI discipline rules have been put in place to ensure that horse welfare is protected at all times,” according to a statement from the FEI.
The Chronicle has a reporter on site at the Paris Olympics. See all of our coverage here.
