Saturday, 07 August 2021
Today, 17 days of top-class equestrian Olympic competition in Tokyo came to an exciting climax with the jumping team final. Solid performances the previous day gave Team GB combinations Holly Smith and Denver, Harry Charles and Romeo 88, and Ben Maher and Explosion W fourth in the running order, with the scoreboard wiped clean and all to play for.
First out for Team GB was Holly Smith and a very fiery Denver, owned by Ian Dowie. Their round started well, but three down and a foot in the water in the latter stages didn’t provide the start that Team GB was hoping for.
“The result just isn’t good enough,” said Holly. “We’re a great showjumping nation and must be better than that. I started off really well and the beginning of the round was great with an unlucky fault in the middle of the combination. However, he jumped a little bit to the right on the oxer before the water and normally he jumps left, so the seven strides then become ridiculously long and it unraveled a bit after that.
“He got quite strong, that’s normal for him, but with the technicality of the course it made it harder – we’re at the Olympic Games. It’s either five or six coming to the last double – I went on five, which was always the plan – whether that was right or not we’ll never know, I won’t get the chance to repeat it. There’s a lot of similar distances – it’s actually a lot of similar questions, just on more tired horses. The experience gets to them, it’s a bit like being in a tumble drier, they’re animals at the end of the day.
“We can come back fighting from this. I’m tough, my team’s tough – bring on Paris!”
Harry Charles continued to restore the confidence of his own and Ann Thompson’s Romeo 88 during their round – the pair haven’t always had the easiest time in the Equestrian Park arena this week, but a smooth final run around the tricky course will give them a good platform to rebuild on going forwards. Two unlucky poles brought the Team GB total to 24.
“For me, that was actually very good,” said Harry. “The horse jumped amazingly – it was his fifth day of jumping in a row, which is extreme. Something I never want to do again, really, is jump that much. You know, he came out and he jumped a cracking round, so I’m delighted with how he's ended up from where we came from earlier in the week.
“He's a great horse, a proper fighter, but has just got a bit out of puff. I think if it was day two or three, we would have been would have been clear – he couldn’t have done much more for me today and I’m delighted how he did.
“This whole experience has been absolutely incredible, to finish in the top 30 at the Olympics against the best of the best, on a horse I’ve only known six months. I wouldn't have thought it was possible for me to do that before, but being around Ben, Scott and Holly has helped me massively. Scott's been absolutely brilliant and it was such a shame for him that we lost him. He took me under his wing and really helped me, throughout these past days deal with everything.”
After two rotations and with a total of 24 penalties on the scoreboard, the team made the brave decision to withdraw from the competition and save individual gold medallists Ben Maher and Explosion W for another day.
“We started well enough yesterday – it’s a new format and it was about getting here today,” explained Ben. “The guys did a good job yesterday, they gave me a margin that meant I didn’t have to put Explosion under too much pressure – I could afford to have a mistake and we got in comfortably today. But it was always going to be a different day and we knew it was going to be tough, it’s a big course and a lot of horse/rider combinations are making mistakes. Holly and Harry are young riders, they’ve ridden incredibly tonight but unfortunately it hasn’t gone our way as a team. Explosion’s welfare is paramount for me. I’m not a quitter on the team, I always push to the end, but we’re a long way off any medal contention and he’s done everything for Team GB and me as a ride this week, and the welfare of him becomes a priority.
“It doesn’t make any difference that we won the individual gold. Yes, he goes back as an Olympic champion – I always knew he was an incredible horse before he came here this week – but this decision is based purely on the team as a whole. We had a decision as a team and any horse’s welfare becomes a priority. This way, he goes home one round less and saved hopefully for another day when we are in medal contention.”
Regardless of the final result, a huge congratulations must go to Holly, Harry, Ben and their horses for reaching the team final – a big achievement in itself.
Today marks the end of a brilliant couple of weeks for Team GB’s equestrian squads, with riders standing on five out of the six podiums and a total of two gold, one silver and two bronze medals being secured. All eyes now turn to Paris 2024, where we can hopefully capitalise on this success and bring home even more medals.