Sunday, 28 July 2024
The Versailles parkland looked glorious in the sunshine – a welcome change from yesterday’s grey skies and rain showers. It’s been widely agreed that Pierre Le Goupil’s track, which takes inspiration from its royal surroundings, is one of the most beautiful course that athletes and spectators alike have ever seen. It ran for 5,194m through the parkland and woods of Chateau de Versailles and included three water complexes and two pontoon crossings that spanned the Grand Canal, offering incredible views of the palace in the background. Combinations had 28 obstacles to tackle – a total of 41 jumping efforts – in a time of 9:02 minutes.
The pathfinder combination for Team GB was Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. A competitive dressage score of 25.8 had set them up well for today and they set off determined to keep the Brits on track for a gold medal.
JL Dublin, or ‘Dubs’ to his friends, is no stranger to the big stage – owned by James and Jo Lambert and Deirdre Johnston, he’s a previous European champion under Nicola Wilson and took Tom to another FEI Eventing European Championship last year, although they unfortunately parted company late in the second phase. They finished second at the Kentucky CCI5* for the second year on the trot in April, before another runners-up result in the CCI4*-S in Luhmühlen in June for their final prep run for this weekend.
The pair were full of running, with Dubs clearly relishing the chance to gallop across the picturesque parkland. One by one, they picked their way through the fences, seemingly without any real difficulty, despite there being a few problems for earlier combinations. When they got to the combination 16ABCD, which sat in the woodland between the two pontoon crossings, Tom opted to take the lesser used left-hand route after the drop – two brush skinnies instead of a ditch and a skinny – having been told that earlier pairings were tripping on the lip of the ditch.
“For the whole week, I’ve wanted to go right at fence 16, but changed my mind right at the last minute,” he explained. “The team had done a brilliant job of watching on the screen and they said that horses weren’t quite reading the ditch at the bottom, from what I understand, just leaving legs and changing lines, and we thought the other side seemed a safer route.”
The only real moment of concern came when Dubs slipped on the flat as they moved away from the woodland complex at fence 21ABCD, but Tom stayed balanced in the saddle and was able to settle the gelding back into a rhythm. They were still running of running as the finish line came into view, with Tom even needing to take a few pulls as they came to last. They crossed the line four seconds inside the optimum time to stay on their dressage score and, importantly, with lots of useful information to share with their team mates still to go.
“I don’t usually show too much emotion and it even brought emotion out of me, so that’s how well it went,” said Tom afterwards. “Dubs was phenomenal from start to finish. It’s the most amazing crowd all the way round the course – it’s absolutely lined, not just at the fences but every single area is packed with people. I love it and the horses love it – the more people, the better! They’re cheering you before, over and after the fences and it’s just lovely because the horses are really picking up.
“It's a fantastic Olympic course. It allows you to be really open and free to start with, then makes the riders think where you need to close up. It’s been such a great course that I actually changed my mind on a couple of elements just as we were about to start because of how they were jumping.
“I’m very lucky that my horse is a European champion in his own right with Nicola [Wilson] – he’s a phenomenal horse and I’ve done enough CCI5*s on him now to have experience, but there’s still plenty to jump later on in the course. Anything can happen – I jumped over the two verticals at fence 21 and had a huge slip just on the flat coming out of there after a lovely ride through it, so you’ve got to stay with them, you’ve got to stay connected and give them all the confidence.
“Going first makes the rest of the day less stressful for me, but I’m going to be fully supporting the girls, giving them all the help or words that they need. I can chill out and watch them do an incredible job. They’re probably two of the best riders in the world right now, so they’ll be fantastic to watch around this course.”
After their record-breaking dressage test the day before, all eyes were on overnight leaders Laura Collett and London 52 as they set out on course. The pair started keenly, but a front lost shoe in the early stages of the course meaning that Laura had to ease up slightly on the accelerator in order for the gelding – who she owns alongside Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott – to keep his footing on ground that, while rapidly drying, had still suffered a soaking the day before.
Despite that, they still produced a confident round that was every inch the match of yesterday’s performance. Like Tom and Dubs, they also opted for the much less commonly used left-hand route at 16ABCD, although this had been Laura’s plan all along.
“To be honest, I was always wanting to jump left off the drop,” she explained. “I just felt like the ditch was a bit of a nothing and there were too many unknown circumstances there for how they would read it and jump it, and with only two strides to the triple brush, I just thought that was an unnecessary risk – and we saw that with one or two of the early 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. It rode really nicely.”
The optimum time of 9:02 had been proving tricker to achieve than Tom and Dubs had made it seem, but Laura and ‘Dan’ still looked to be good on the clock as they entered the latter stages of the course. However, mindful of her gelding’s missing shoe, Laura had to take a more sweeping line as they moved away from the final water combination at 23ABCD, which made it touch and go as to whether they’d make it home without picking up any penalties. As it was, they crossed the line two seconds over, putting them on to a new two-phase total of 18.3 – still an enviable score, but that left the door open for Germany’s Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH to overtake them with a clear round.
“London 52 is just my horse of a lifetime, he’s incredible,” gushed Laura. “He’s just so talented and I think, for me, it’s knowing what he was like as a young horse and knowing how much he’s had to trust me and believe in me… he’s not a natural cross-country horse, and then he goes round a course like that on railways tracks – it just shows what a partnership you can build up if you make them believe in you and I have such faith in him now that we can go out there and enjoy us now.
“The time was quite tight! There are a couple of places where you can really let them gallop, but there are an awful lot of twists and turns, and he lost a shoe and was slipping all over the place, so I had to be quite careful on the turns and kill the speed a bit to get round the trees without doing anything stupid like slipping over. It is gettable, but it’s tight.
I don’t know where he lost the shoe, but it must have been quite early given how much he was slipping. It was a front shoe, but fingers crossed we can get him sorted tonight – it’s not ideal, but it shows what a good horse he is. I’m just relieved that it’s over and I haven’t let anyone down. I don’t have the words, to be honest.”
With Great Britain still comfortably out in front – helped by a minor fall from Germany’s Christoph Wahler and Carjatan S at 16ABCD, which put the overnight runners-up nationa out of the hunt – it was down to Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo to finalise our position going into the final phase.
The reigning European champions had had a long day of waiting before they could enter the start box, although ‘Walter’ – owned by Michele and Archie Saul – had found his own way to deal with the situation.
“He was nicely tucked up in bed about an hour ago, having a sleep,” laughed Ros. “I had to get him up to get him ready for the cross-country, so it’s been a good day for him in France, I think.”
There are few horses who look more at home on a cross-country course than Walter, who was in his element as he and Ros set out. The gelding is always very clever with his footwork, as evidenced by the little skip he put in heading up the step to the birch rails at 7AB. Fence by fence, they skipped along, jumping out of their stride and with Walter’s ears pricked. The one slightly sticky moment came at the final water combination at 23ABCD, when Walter was a little flat over the BC brush element in the water and stumbled and landing over the final corner. However, they picked up and crossed the line with six seconds to spare and Ros punching the air.
However, news soon came in that they’d been given 15 penalties for missing a flag at the 21D brush skinny, putting them on a two-phase score of 38.4. Despite this, Ros was still delighted with her faithful campaigner.
“Walter was his usual incredible self,” she said. “He loves to run, he loves to jump and he loves a crowd, so he was in his element today.
“I did touch a flag coming out of the triple brushes in the wood, but I would have never imagined I didn’t jump the jump – I didn’t come back and think I’d done anything but come back clear inside the time.
“I had to keep chugging on – it certainly wasn’t a breeze in the park at all, but there were so many lovely galloping stretches that I had to get Walter back a little bit more sometimes than I’ve had to in the past. He’s definitely come out this year a little bit stronger in the bridle than he has been – he hasn’t run as much and he’s a bit fresher. He came back to me really well and he was an absolute superstar. The crowd was incredible, unbelievable. They cheered you before you even got to the jump. I’ve never had that before!
“We’re just going to enjoy the next couple of hours, to be honest. I’m going to have to work hard mentally tomorrow, I think – it’s going to be a big deal and the pressure’s going to be incredible. I’m going to try and see my family for a bit now. They’ve all been out here watching, so I’m going to see if I can get out and find them, then we’ll kick into gear.”
One of the fastest rounds of the day sees two-time Olympic champion Michael Jung leading the individual medal hunt with Chipmunk FRH, relegating Laura Collet and London 52 to second. Tom McEwen and JL Dublin sit sixth with 28.5, while Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo lie in 24th on 38.4 due to the 15 penalties added to their scorecard.
A rollercoaster day in the team competition sees Team GB still out in front on 82.5 (subject to the outcome of the appeal), but with home nation France breathing down our necks on 87.2. Christoph Wahler’s fall and a shock run-out for Jonelle Price and Hiarado have dropped Germany and New Zealand down the rankings, while three clear rounds and two inside the time have moved Japan into bronze medal position, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium.
Following the morning’s horse inspection, tomorrow will see the team and individual medallists crowned after two rounds of showjumping. The team competition will start at 10:00 BST, followed by the individual competition at 14:00. Both medal ceremonies will take place at 15:00 BST.
Full results and times for tomorrow can be found on Olympic.org and read our ‘how to watch’ guide for all your viewing information.