Last night the British show jumpers celebrated after taking their first team gold medal in sixty years, but tonight the dressage riders one upped that victory by doing something no British team has ever done before: winning team gold.
The British show jumpers aren’t known for wild displays of emotion, but when Peter Charles jumped a clear round to secure the gold medal as the last rider to go in a thrilling jump-off against the Netherlands, Nick Skelton literally leaped into the air with joy.
Victor, ridden by Tiffany Foster of Canada, was disqualified from the Olympic show jumping competition today under the Fédération Equestre Interationale’s hypersensitivity protocol.
After one round of team show jumping at the Olympic Games, the biggest news isn't who will be going forward to the medal round, but rather who won't. Heavy hitters Germany, France and Belgium were all knocked out of the running, as well as the teams from Australia, Ukraine, Chile and Mexico.
Sue Benson intended to separate the Olympic winners from the also-rans by making the time tough to get on her twisty, hilly course in the center of Greenwich Park, and the cross-country results proved mission accomplished when Germany’s Ingrid Klimke on Butts Abraxxas tied with Sweden’s Linda Algotsson Ostholt on Wega for first place on double-clear rounds.
No one was more surprised than Yoshiaki Oiwa himself to learn that his score of 38.1 with Noonday de Conde was the best of the day in the dressage portion of the eventing at the Olympic Games.
