TOKYO, Japan--All thee of the U.S. riders,, Jessie Springsteen on Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, Kent Farrington on Gazelle and Laura Kraut on Baloutinue, had 4 faults, and in the oddest twist of fate, the rails were all at the same fence, the in of a combination, in the qualifying round for the Individual medals.
With only 30 qualifying for the Individual medal final Wednesday, 25 were clean, four had 1 time fault and one had 2 time faults, so no four faulters qualified for the finals, meaning the U.S> will not have a shot at winning an individual medal.
There didn't seem to be any rider error from either of the three.
In the 1:30 pm NBCSN repay of much of the qualifier, which had begun at 6 am Tuesday morning in the East, Melanie Smith Taylor said, "Jessie set him up just right for the in, but he just ticked it in front and it came down."
That fence, as well as some others, had flat cups and all the fences had light rails, so the slightest touch brought a fence down.
Farrington had exactly the same rail down, the front rail, but Gazelle ticked it behind, not in front like Don Juan.
His face, as he left the ring, showed his bitter disappointment.
And Kraut had the same fence down, but the back rail came down for her after it looked like Baloutinue had been placed perfectly for the fence.
ONLY THREE from each nation were allowed to compete, and the nations were assigned to three groups, with all riders from each country going in their assigned group.
There were a couple of interesting differences in the groups.
Group one and two had about the same number of riders going clean or with 1 fault, about 13 each, while group three, in which the U.S and Germany competed, had only five clean, and times were pretty consistently faster in groups one and two.
The time of each rider decides the order of go in the final, with the fastest going last.
The U.S and Germany were favorites to win medals, but no U.S. riders got through, and only one German went clean.
Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Sweden and Japan qualified all three riders, and The Netherlands, Switzerland and Egypt qualified two each.
With the time difference, the class started at 7 pm Tuesday evening in Japan and, with breaks for dragging the ring, it was very late in Japan when the last group went.
Whether the going was different, or lighting was different, or just the lateness of the hour affected the horses and riders, it seemed something had to have affected the final group.
Springsteen on Don Juan van de Donkhoeve was the first in the final group to ride over Santiago Varela's 1.65m track under the lights, crossing through the finish in 87.15 seconds with 4 faults.
Farrington on Gazelle was the second for the team and just barely rubbed the first rail of last double to finish with a time of 88.57 seconds and 4 faults, and Kraut on Baloutinue finished on 8 faults in 85.23 seconds.
“My horse jumped unbelievable,” said Springsteen. “I couldn’t be happier with him. When I walked that line, I thought that would ride a little bit more up, but my horse has such a big stride, and he jumped the wall very forward, so I just think I was a little bit quieter there but all-in-all I’m thrilled with the round, and I’m excited for the rest of the week.”
Farrington was disappointed with his score but is ready for the team for Friday’s competition.
“A harsh reality of our sport is that you have one rail down and you’re out," said Farrington. "The new format here being what it is, is that this is the only qualifier for the individual final and is all or nothing and unfortunately for the American team right now it’s nothing, so just a tough night for us. Any horse can have a rail down, and it wasn’t the right day to have one down, so it was costly. We’ll go back as a team and regroup with a plan and look forward to doing better later this week.”
“I was really pleased with three quarters of the course." said Kraut. "I thought my horse jumped fantastic. He was focused and he stuck right with the plan that I wanted. I wouldn’t say that it actually went wrong; I got the jump into the wall that I wanted, which led me into the four and he had an uncharacteristic touch of a back pole. I lost a tiny bit of concentration to the last and didn’t fight as much as I should have, and he barely touched that. I’m not disappointed in him at all, just disappointed with the score.”
With only three from each team allowed in the qualifier for the Individual, McLain Ward was the team member who didn't compete.
“The strategy was to go clean, which we didn’t do, but all along we’ve been very aware that this is a four-day process and the horses jumped very well tonight and the riders rode well. It just wasn’t our night, but the flip side is we’ll have fresher horses on Friday night and the course designer, Santiago, is definitely going to step things up tomorrow,” said chef d'equipe Ridland. “This wasn’t our plan, but we’ll play it to our advantage to some degree and I think we’re in good shape for Friday, though it’s obviously disappointing to not be in contention for an individual medal.”
Ridland said he had no idea why all three U.S. riders had the same fence down.
"The good news is that we will be fresh and rested for the team event, especially when we bring in our ace in the hole, McLain," said Ridland.
The Jumping Individual Final for medals will begin at 7:00 p.m. JST, 6:00 a.m. EDT tomorrow, Aug. 4, and the Jumping Team Qualifier will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 6 at 7:00 p.m. JST, 6:00 a.m. EDT.