TOKYO, Japan--After a disappointing performance on the cross country, the Eventing team of Doug Payne, Phillip Dutton and Boyd Martin followed it up with another disappointing result in Stadium Jumping to drop one place behind Germany and finish sixth of the nine teams that finished without an elimination.
English team kissing their gold medals (Photo by Macmillan Photography)Payne on Vandiver and Martin on Tsetserleg each had four faults, but with Martin also adding .4 time, and Dutton on Z added another eight faults to drop the team to sixth on 125.8.
All three Americans did qualify for the round of the top 25 for individual medals but Payne added another rail down, Dutton two rails and Martin three rails and time for Payne to finish on 47.8, 16th individually, Martin finishing on 52.3, 20th individually and Dutton finishing on 52.3, 21st individually.
Great Britain, with three riders who had never been to the Olympics before, had three clear round cross country, with Tim McEwan on Toledo de Kerser clear in Stadium to finish as silver medalist on his dressage score while Laura Collett and Oliver Townend had four faults apiece for the team to finish on 86.3, 13.9 points ahead of the silver medal team from Australia, whose Andrew Hoy was the bronze medalist, finishing on his dressage score of 28.9.
Historically, U.S. Eventing teams have been among the top teams, winning team and individual medals, but this team wasn't able to reach those high standards.
Despite that, the riders and chef d'equipe quotes seemed as if they were happy with the result.
“He was jumping absolutely great and got a little shifty in the line and we got caught out on the back rail at the red and yellow, and honestly I’m pretty frustrated at that, but he was jumping so well that I couldn’t ask a whole lot more from him,” said Payne. “He’s shown a lot of heart this week and I’m just so thankful to have him.”
“I’M REALLY disappointed, obviously," said Dutton. "Z was trying really hard, and I was going to try and get down to the triple in six and then I had to change my mind, and he had to work so hard to get out, that he had the out down and that rattled him a little bit. It’s a good course and you’ve got to be able to be on an open stride or add and you can’t try to do both. You have to keep it all in perspective. This is certainly an improvement from the team perspective for the U.S. for a while now and we had aimed for higher, but we hit the board.”
Tom McEwen, silver medal (Photo by Allen MacMillan)“I thought my horse came out and jumped very well." said Martin. "He's always a bit tricky in combinations and I was dreading that red and yellow one stride oxer to vertical and I think in hindsight I got there a touch too early, and he just nicked it with a toe, so saying that I'm pretty pleased with him all around. He's a great horse and tries hard and he's a champion.”
With a sixth-place finish, the team felt the sting of being unable to deliver a podium finish, but overall, the improvement and depth of the team is something to be built upon with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on the horizon.
Chef d’Equipe Erik Duvander felt the team had the opportunity to reach the medals if things had gone more their way, but overall, the improvement and growth is something to be attested to for the future.
In total, the team has been on the road for the past three-and-a-half weeks with a trip to Aachen, Germany before their two week stay in Tokyo, and Duvander commented on the logistics and travel associated with these Games.
“In all of my years of competing and coaching in Championships in this sport, I have never experienced such a arduous trip for the horses," said Duvander "Our team handled the process without doubt and ultimately kept the welfare of our horses at the forefront of every decision. Our team truly showed their mettle on the cross country yesterday. The horses gave their absolute all on the final day in show jumping and tried until the end with everything they had left. Our grooms and staff who have worked so meticulously to care for these horses deserved a better result. It has been an extraordinary effort across the board since we left the U.S., from everyone on the long list — the reserve combinations who traveled to Germany and those who participated at the Mandatory Outing — everyone has fronted up for the U.S team and done everything within their power to support our success. I have a great belief in the future of the U.S., as I know we are on the right track"
Virtually every team had about the same arduous trip, and, as for the welfare of the horses, almost all the horses looked as fresh as daisies in Stadium, after having all competed in the same conditions.
Anyone who donated to the USEF to support Eventing should hope that USEF takes a long, hard look at Eventing and at what are available ways to improve it.
For one thing, the team needs horses that are capable of scoring in the top 10 in dressage so that they don''t start off too far behind are capable of easily making the time cross country.
For instance, one German horse that had a stop on the cross country course in Tokyo but still was fresh enough to make the time comfortably.
