VERSAILLES,France--Great Britain got off to a flying start,leading in both the team and individual standings after the dressage phase of Eventing, during which multiple records were smashed on Saturday, July 27.
Laura Collett of Great Britain on London 52 (Photo by FEI/Benjamin Clark)The U.S. team of Liz Halliday on Nutcracker, Caroline Pamukcu on HSH Blake and Boyd Martin on Fedarman B is sixth on 88.90 behind Great Britain, 66.70.Germany, 74.10, France, 81.20, New Zealand, 83.00, and Japan, 87.40.
While Great Britain and Germany will be hard to catch, each with three top riders, only seven points separates the next four teams.
Halliday scored 28.00 in dressage to stand 19th individually, Pamukcu scored 30.40 and stand 25th while Martin scored 30.50 and is 26th.
"It was an awesome test with some disastrous spots," said Martin, whose disastrous spots were in his left to right flying changes, which he failed completely, dropping his score.
Pamukcu said she felt comfortable going into the dressage.
"THIS ISN'T A dressage show," she said. "I'm here for the team. This is the team first, not me first. Going into dressage, it was just have no blow-ups."
"The cross country is going to be hard with all the rain last night," Pamukcu said. "Every jump is hard, there are no gimme jumps, and with the rain it will be quite easy to slip. There's no place to ease up, it's just go, go, go."
Both individual leader Britain’s Laura Collett on London 52 and second placed Michael Jung from Germany on Chipmunk FRH broke the Olympic Eventing record Dressage score of 19.3 set by America’s David O’Connor and Custom Made at the Sydney 2000 Games.
Collett scored a superb mark of 17.50 when 33rd to go of the 64 starters, and then German ace Jung almost matched that when posting 17.80 a couple of hours later.
Lying equal third in the individual rankings overnight are China’s Alex Hua Tian on Jilsonne van Bareelhof and Australia’s Christopher Burton on Shadow Man, who each scored 22.0, while Switzerland’s Felix Vogg on Dao de L’Ocean is fractionally behind in fifth spot on 22.10 and in sixth is Britain’s Ros Canter on Lordships Graffalo on 23.40.
It’s a super-tight situation in the individual standings with just 8.2 penalty points separating the top 10 individuals and just 11.6 separating the top 20 going into tomorrow’s Cross-Country phase, which is expected to be hugely influential.
And the British team total of 66.70 after Dressage is another Olympic Eventing record, overtaking the previous best of 68.6 posted by Australia at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Defending the team gold they won in Tokyo three years ago, the British tonight have a 7.4 penalty point lead over Germany in second on 74.10, while on 81.20 the Olympic hosts Team France are just ahead of fourth-placed New Zealand on 83.00.
The motivation is certainly there for all of the British contingent.
“Myself and Tom were lucky enough to be on the podium (in Tokyo) with a gold medal around our necks, so we want to do it again,"said Collett. "We’ve come here with a lot of pressure and expectations, but pressure is a privilege!”
"The Cross-Country test is plenty to jump, plenty of places where you just have to be on your game the whole way around," said Canter. "The time is going to be a big factor of course and that’s where mistakes creep in. I’ve got a plan, I’m open to that plan changing - but I’m going to stay in my bubble, I’ve got a fantastic team around me and hopefully we can get the job done tomorrow”.
The British will certainly all need to keep sharp if they are to stay ahead of Team Germany who are hot on their heels.
Second-placed Michael Jung, a man with an incredible record behind him, said he really likes the Cross-Country track.
“Every fence is very nicely built and the gallop track is so nice. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow and the rain has been good for the ground. My feeling is that the Cross-Country will be amazing tomorrow”.
Where riding tactics are concerned, he confirmed the opinion of many others - “we need to stay concentrated and to do everything 100% perfect”.
Cross Country beins at 10.30am local time,4:40 am Eastern, over the track that measures 5,149 metres with a time allowed of 9.02 minutes and 28 obstacles and 41 efforts to be tackled along the way.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Eventing medals are very much hanging in the balance with plenty of changes expected at the end of what is set to be another really thrilling day.
