With an expected qualification in dressage coming a few days ago, the second and final Olympic qualification event at the 2022 FEI World Championships came in the jumping competition.
In Olympic jumping, there will be 20 teams of three in Paris, with seventy-five individuals: the sixty team members and fifteen who qualified separately. This would be the first qualifier for the team event, with the top five teams (except from France, who have already qualified as hosts) qualifying for the Games, also qualifying three individual spots.
Our team was made up of two-time Olympic gold medalist Ben Maher on Faltic HB, a horse at his biggest competition yet; young talent Joseph Stockdale on Equine America Cacherel, a relatively unknown pairing; Tokyo 2020 athlete Harry Charles on Romeo 88, and gold medallist in this event in London 2012 Scott Brash alongside Hello Jefferson. All four horses were still relatively early in their relationship with their riders, as we are just one year into the Olympic cycle, albeit a shortened one. There were 22 teams, and in the first competition, it was all about speed. Every athlete completed a course with four seconds added for faults. The competitor with the lowest time got zero points (needless to say, ‘points’ are a negative in equestrianism), every one else would get get a score, with one point added for every two seconds put on.
The fastest was France’s Julien Epaillard on Caracole de la Roque in 79.08 seconds. First to go for GB was Stockdale, who with one fault put in a time of 91.85 seconds, earning him a score of 6.39. Later down the line it was the turn of Charles, who with one fault but in a time of 88.50 seconds, earning a score of 4.71. Then went Maher, who had no faults and put in a time of 82.52, earning 1.72 points. Finally was Brash, who put in the second fastest time overall, 79.54 seconds with no faults, to earn 0.23 points. In this round (and every other round), the three best performing athletes are taken into consideration, so Stockdale’s score was excluded and the other three were added up: GB had 6.66 points after the first round, putting them in fourth.
On the second day, points were earned for going above 83 seconds (one point per second), and there were still four points for any fault. Each team would go once, and then the top ten would go a second time. In the first round, Maher had a faultless performance, but Stockdale picked up twelve points and Charles picked up eight before Brash had a faltless performance. This was added up after Stockdale was excluded for eight total points, putting us on 14.66 after that round and in sixth position. With France as one of the teams ahead, that would just be enough for a medal. In the second and final round of the day, Maher picked up four points, as did Stockdale, before Charles put in a perfect performance when GB needed it most, showing experience beyond his years. Brash put in eight points so his score was excluded, GB got eight points in the round and finished on 22.66. But as Germany, France, and Belgium faltered ahead of them, GB not only had an Olympic qualification spot confirmed – for the team and three individuals – but a first medal in this event since the turn of the millenium as well, finishing fifth.
With the Dressage and Jumping all wrapped up, we now turn to the World Eventing Championships next month in Italy to try and make it a clean sweep in this sport. The next qualification event is the European Shooting Championships in Cyprus in about two weeks’ time.
GB Games 