8 Aug 2012

Team GB lose out to Switzerland in individual showjumping

GB’s medal hopes dashed in the individual equestrian show-jumping as Nick Skelton comes in fifth place with Steve Guerdat of Switzerland taking gold.

Three British riders competed in the individual equestrian jumping final, with Nick Skelton and Scott Brash raising medal hopes after completing the first round with no penalties. Britain’s equestrian jumping team won a gold medal on Monday – the first team jumping medal for Britain since 1984.

But in a tense final round, all three Team GB riders gained penalties for knocking a bar down.

Steve Guerdat of Switzerland won a gold medal after finishing the first and second rounds clear of any penalties.

Ireland’s Cian O’Connor and Holland’s Gerco Schroder came joint second after both finishing with a clear run and incuring one penalty point each for going over the time limit. After a “jump-off”, Schroder took silver with O’Connor settling for bronze after hitting the final fence.

Britain’s trio

First up for Britain was Ben Maher who picked up four penalty points in round A and round B for knocking a bar each time, ruling himself and his horse Tripple X out of a medal.

Brash and Skelton were two of only six riders to have no penalties going into the last round of jumping. After knocking a bar down in round A, Brash was penalised with four points and was also out of the running for an Olympic medal.

Team GB‘s medal hopes were then all pinned on Nick Skelton with his horse Big Star – the last of British riders to complete the course. A packed crowd of 20,000 people screamed and cheered as he entered the ring. But he knocked the top bar of a fence down in one of the jumps close to the finish.

Equestrian Jumping

In equestrian jumping riders have to jump thirteen fences, comprising sixteen obstacles (some fences comprise more than one obstacle), in a set order.

Penalties are made for a number of infringements and the jumpers are also trying to complete the course as quickly as possible. If riders’ scores are equal then the speed with which they completed the course is taken into account.

Unlike in eventing, style is not a factor in scoring.

Cian O’Connor of Ireland was stripped of his 2004 Olympics medal following an alleged doping offence – one that he has always denied. He only made this final round of jumping after Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson withdrew this morning because of injury to his horse.

There were 37 riders in the first round of the final, with the highest scoring 20 riders going through to round B.

Together the Team GB trio of Scott Brash, Ben Maher and Nick Skelton won the first equestrian jumping team gold in 60 years after a tense jump-off with the Netherlands on Monday.

Before entering this competition. Britain had not won an Olympic team jumping medal of any colour since 1984.