The Dutch produced three perfect clears to head today’s team rankings at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, while Great Britain crashed out of the competition.
Three clear
The Netherlands hold the top spot in the team competition after three superb clears from Jeroen Dubbeldam, Gerco Schröder and Maikel Van Der Vleuten. They finished on a combined score of 4.83, with only penalities carried forwards from yesterday’s speed competition.
The USA and Germany lie in silver and bronze, with 8.72pen and 8.82pen respectively.
Host nation France is fourth, while Patrice Devaleau holds individual first place – much to the delight of the home supporters – with a total of 0.08 faults.
Brazil, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Columbia and Ukraine will also continue in the team competition.
British disappointment
But there was to be no golden hat-trick for Team GB, whose chances of qualifying for tomorrow’s team decider, let alone any medals, slowly trickled away.
Pathfinder Michael Whitaker and Viking picked up 12 faults, with the pressure now on the remaining Brits to go clear.
“He warmed-up very good, and he felt good in the ring, but they’re not machines,” said Michael. “I think the atmosphere may have just got to him a little bit. You can’t make excuses; it just didn’t work out today.”
But Whitaker’s team-mates Joe Clee ended up with another twelve faults and Spencer Roe had two down.
Wet feet
Even world number one Scott Brash wouldn’t be able to save the day. With only 10 teams qualifying and Britain languishing way down the order, there was no chance of the team making it to tomorrow’s competition.
Scott picked up four faults at the water jump with his Olympic and European team gold medal-winning ride, Hello Sanctos, which left him in 36th place. It was good enough for him to qualify as an individual, but the team was out.
“It’s disappointing, but I’m pleased with the horse. It’s just one of those things,” said Scott.
Cycles
Chef d’equipe Rob Hoekstra was pragmatic about the day’s results.
“We’ve not had a great time here but it’s difficult to stay at the top for three, four, five championships in a row,” he said.
“We’ve had a great run – team bronze in Madrid, team gold medal in London and a team gold medal in Herning, but this is the other end of the cycle. Now we have to regroup and pull together ahead of the next championship.”
Challenging course
It was a big, wide, championship course with some very spooky fences – including an artists’ easel fence and a pistol to finish the course.
Out of 147 entries, 20 jumped clear, while three did not start. Two riders elected to retire while six were eliminated.
Ireland’s Bertram Allen was unlucky to drop from first place yesterday to 14th overall after just one fence down, while Penelope Leprevost (FRA) and Gregory Wathelet (BEL) also dropped down the leaderboard after picking up four faults apiece today.