- 13 Aug 08, 05:28 AM
Sha Tin, Hong Kong
Well it wasn't gold but I'll settle for two bronzes!
What a night it was here in Sha Tin.
The atmosphere in the stadium was electric and the huge floodlights dazzled and sparkled, really hammering home you were witnessing an Olympic final.
I've decided to leave out any mention of disappointment.
Sometimes we can spend too long talking of what would have been. Let's just all celebrate how a team of five Britons, two of whom were at their first ever Olympics, managed to come third in a competition that is always so hard to win.
The Olympic equestrian events are never clear cut.
There are so many horses and riders based around the world that we in Britain don't get to see compete.
Add to that the travel, weather, scary arenas, huge crowds and of course nerves, then anything can happen.
William Fox-Pitt's 'Ed' did his worst ever dressage test and Mary King told me 'Cavvie' hasn't had a show-jumping fence down for two years.
But the one who really surprised everyone was Tina Cook.
It's been nine years since she last rode for Britain yet she looked like she's never been away.
Tina's been telling us all how good Miner's Frolic is for years ''This is my horse for the Olympics,'' she kept saying.
What she meant though was 2012, not 2008!
Well done Tina. It was also an incredible result that the individual gold went to Germany's Hinrich Romeike.
Every amateur rider reading this must take heart from the fact that he's a full-time dentist with just one top horse - Marius. I reckon this makes him the ultimate working rider?!
The competition has been marred slightly by the news that the American event rider Phillip Dutton was disqualified after his horse was found to have been wearing illegally weighted back boots.
Some riders use weighted boots on their horse's back legs in the show-jumping phase to make them pick their feet up, but they have to be within a certain weight limit.
Dutton, who won two team gold medals for Australia in 2000 and 2004 before switching nationality to the US, would have finished in joint 12th place in the individual competition.
His disqualification doesn't affect the USA's final team position of 7th or any of the medals - but it's just not what the sport needs.
It also begs the question, why don't the officials check these things before the rider goes into the ring?
It's a shame - but I hope everyone will forget about it asap.
So one down, two to go. Bring on the pure dressage next.
It starts today at 7.15pm HK time - 12.15pm UK time.
Anky, Isobel, Kyra as well as our own Laura B, Emma and Jane.
I know I am a very lucky girl and I will enjoy every minute watching it.
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Comments
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We have SO enjoyed and been thrilled by the British Equestrian Eventing team. What a team! WELL DONE! WE ARE VERY PROUD! Please, please, please though BBC could we have more coverage of ALL equestrian disciplines! We do have Freeview but not cable or sky and I cannot find any coverage of the dressage beginning today or indeed of every British team members dressage from the first day of eventing. A pity considering Tina Cooks splendid achievement in obtaining the individual bronze!
Rachel Frost
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Well done Team GB!! It was a thrill to watch Tina Cook's round, and the whole team did so well! I just find it remarkable that these horses can perform to such a high standard in an environment so different to anything they've been used to, and after so much travelling. I think it's fair to say that it's not just the riders who deserve praise, but also the people behind the scenes who've made sure that all has run smoothly with regards to the care of these magnificent horses.
Bring on 2012!
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What a competition! Well done Tina and the team. Whilst watching the dressage her horse and the eventual winner, Marius were the 2 horses who really shone. The top 3 individual postions were unquestionably the right 3 to take medals home.
I thought the BBC coverage was exceptional - especially the show jumping - the showed it live (rare!) and gave great highlights at 7pm for those who may have missed it..
Bring on the dressage and the pure show jumping! Go Team GB!
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Yes well done BBC - great coverage- thank heavens for interactive if you are a dressage fan though!
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I agree - Marius thoroughly deserved it- and well done Tina
the blogger was over ambitious for Team GB- tey did very well - the Germans are exceptional
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I'm one of those that only follows ceratin sports when they come at the Olympics, however, personally, whilst the last 2 of the 3 events are exciting, dressage to an "uneducated" viewer to me, was like watching paint dry.
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We should be very happy with 2 bronze medals - the Olympics are a completely different animal to the events we see at home - Badminton, Burghley, etc. The X-country has to be jumpable without injury by so many riders from different countries that it comes down to something of a time trial. Dressage has never been our strongest phase, and without a stiff x-country, we were always struggling to keep up with the Germans (look at the respective national dressage teams!).
Had the Olympics been run at Badminton, we may have seen a different story, but for all future major championships, we need to work on the dressage and SJ.
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I have greatly enjoyed the BBC coverage of the Olympics so far. However I do wish that the interviewers would not ask such silly questions of the heros/heroines who have won medals, like "what does it feel like to have won your medal; lets have another look at the medal" etc.. What the viewer wants to know is more about how he/she ran her race, threats from the competition, more about what makes a great performance etc.
I am not sure if this is the right place for me to comment, if not, if you could relay this comment to the right people!
With thanks
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Decent result for GB, and at least it was Tina Cook who got the individual medal - some good came out of the oh-so-convenient "injury" that prevented the Queen's granddaughter from going to Hong Kong.
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Considering the rough start Team GB had, a bronze feels like a pretty good return in the end. And big congratulations to Tina Cook for a nerveless ride.
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This turned out to be a very fair event and the three individual medal winners were outstanding. The selection of Tina Cook with this relatively inexperienced horse was inspired. But why with this sport must somebody always have an ill informed dig about Zara Phillips? She is the world champion and former European champion in this sport and surely deserved to be selected to go to Hong Kong on merit, regardless of who she is. Toytown is very strong in all three phases and would have had a great chance of an individual medal. The fact that this horse suffered an injury could hardly be called convenient.
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Thanks commercialbreakdown for your excellent comments. I was about to have a go at stop-it-aggers for the snipe myself. I am sure that Zara was very disappointed not to go to Beijing but I know that she would have put the horse's welfare first. I am also sure that the decision not to go would have been taken in consultation with vets and the rest of the support team, not just Zara herself. It is about time we stopped sniping about our sports people who give up a lot to follow their dream. All I say is, if anyone can do better, get out there and do it!!
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The two of you are missing the point, I'm not sniping at all - in fact I'm saving special praise for TC. Of course Zara's geneaology doesn't matter to the horse, and her achievements in the sport stand for themselves.
Unfortunately her family tree does matter in political circles, particularly in Hong Kong of all places. It is politically convenient for a lot of people for Zara not to take part in these particular Games - and of course she'll still be around for 2012. I think you'll find that it was the Foreign Office, not the vets, that declared Toytown unfit....
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stopitaggers,
Do you have any evidence to substantiate your allegations?
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Well done to Team GB and Tina - fantastic achievements against unbelievable competition. Special thanks to Mike Tucker and Ian Stark for their wonderfully entertaining and knowledgeable commentary. Good luck to the team for Dressage and Showjumping competitions.
And finally dressage is like any sport, if you have knowledge of riding, even after a few lessons, you can appreciate the riders' skill and horses paces, suppleness and obedience...But even with no experience of judo, synchonised diving, canoeing etc, have been watching the lot - all fascinating competitions in their differeant ways - after a few minutes you can start to appreciate differences in competitors' skill and technique...so stick with the dressage and support team GB!
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i thoroughly enjoyed the coverage, the commentary was excellent, unlike some of the other sports where the people holding the microphones appear to be behaving like its a reality soap show or something
Well done Team GB. It's so nice to see such a level of professionalism and simple pleasure at a job well done. There is no doubt that the Germans and the Ozzies deserved their place and we did too.
Well done to everyone concerned, and as it's now 13.10 - where's the dressage coverage???
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bradgate2 (#14) :
Ultimately the only people who know the true state of Toytown are the vets who examined him, and as long as they stick to their story, nothing I can say will persuade you for definite. But what exactly _was_ the "injury"? All we were ever told in public was that it was a vague "soft tissue" problem somewhere on Toytown's body - but not the old tendon injury.
Just think of the situation after the Tibet protests at the torch relay in April. The Palace and FCO will have realised that Zara was on a hiding to nothing. Her options were :
1) Compete and say nothing
2) Compete and protest against the Chinese somehow
3) Boycott the Games like her uncle has over Tibet
4) Subside from view with an injury
Lose-lose-lose-neutral.
So they've taken the least bad option, where only she gets hurt. Her family of all families is used to subsuming personal ambition to the greater good, and these days their PR people are pretty good at avoiding unnecessary banana skins. Happily we've ended up with her replacement getting two medals, so a pretty miserable situation has kinda worked out in the end.
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Why oh why is the dressage always relegated to satellite or cable? I have no time for it other than now - to watch the dressage.........as for the blogger who thought it was 'like watching paint dry' - it does require a brain celll to understand the harmony and relationship between horse and rider.
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As I posted yesterday concerning the eventing showjumping, the dressage is in full flow on www.eurovisionsports.tv/olympics, screen 2. Been watching it since 12.15!
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I think that crowpoodle's comment that you 'require a brain cell' to be able to appreciate dressage highlights an unfortunate elitist minority within this sport. I enjoyed watching the mastery in which these Olympians were able to conduct themselves and their horses but didn't have the passion to be able to watch it and get excited at the smaller details. I believe this is exactly what Willy86 was saying in their post. So perhaps you should work on developing some more social etiquette in that brain cell we're all missing so badly?
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Incidentally, is anyone else who's 'horsey' often staggered by other people's ignorance of all things equestrian?
My work colleague just asked me what it meant by Michael Whitaker's horse being withdrawn through lameness. He thought it meant the horse was rubbish, as in the American definition!
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stopitaggers,
The answer to my question appears to be 'No' then.
Are you a horse owner? Do you ride? Do you know anything about horses?
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Any activity that requires participants to wear a cravat and a top hat is not a sport, let alone an olympic one. In any case they shouldn't be representing Britain, as far as I can tell the horses are mostly from Irish stock and they're the ones jumping over the fences.
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Dutton, who won two team gold medals for Australia in 2000 and 2004 before switching nationality to the US, would have finished in joint 12th place in the individual competition.......Doesn't this type of thing make a mockery of the whole situation ? Surely having once represented a country you should be bound to that country even if you change your nationality. Ala Zola Budd ?
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Exactly my point creepingivy. I can appreciate the skill involved in sports such as dressage, but from an entertainment view I don't think it makes good television. Chess requires a lot of skill, but I wouldn't want to watch it on TV either.
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As for showing dressage on live TV, by all means do it, but be prepared for a drastic drop in TV viewing on that station.
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Yup. We're on a few steps away from 2012 Olympian interpretive dance, can't deny skill on both sides, but can't personally imagine a fate worse than stuck watching it.
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Firstly, jimmymac1981, I'm all for freedom of speech and freedom of choice, but as you clearly don't want to be watching dressage, please don't insult those of us who watch and participate in it by telling us it doesn't deserve to be called a sport.
If you don't like it, don't watch it. We know it's not a mass-popularity sport, but it doesn't make it any less valid!!
How can you base a definition of an Olympic sport on what people wear??!
Secondly, I don't approve of people switching nationalities either, but if the powers that be put a stop to it, the All Blacks wouldn't be one of the best rugby teams in the world and a few cricket players I could mention wouldn't be captains of England......
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Bronze looks like gold from a distance anyway!!
Excellent work team GB... BBC Please more equestrian coverage in general and keep Ian Stark as a commentator he has had me in fits of laughter during the eventing and jumping.
Great Job Ian and I think you should be given a go of Miners Frolic in that arena before they come back home!!!
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Horsey or not, i think everyone can appreciate that to win medals at the olympics you must be top of the game.
GB has done brilliantly, and BBC coverage has been great!
The one thing that will make me wince again and again is the walloping 'pats' the horses seem to recieve as they finish. I certainly wouldnt want to be congratulated like that and i think some riders should try to thank their horses in a way more appreciated by the horse!
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CROWPOODLE YOU MAKE ME LAUGH
ARE YOU POSH
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bradgate2 (#22) :
Yes thanks, although ad hominem bluster is irrelevant to the debate. Anyone with half a brain can work out for themselves which of the above four outcomes causes least embarrassment to HMG and the family.
Obviously Zara and the Tibet thing is a potential problem; people are paid to think about these things and avoid such minefields where possible. They did their job well - end of story. Now can we get back to discussing the people who actually _did_ make it to Hong Kong?
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Dear Lizzie,
Sadly, your attitude sums up the "it's better to travel that to arrive..." mindset that has long held back UK sporting achievement. It is in stark contrast to the mentality found universally in the USA and Australia or the UK cycling, rowing and sailing teams.
I would refer you to the World Class Pathway Summer Olympic investment programme 2006-09 which indicates that UK equestrianism is to receive over £9.6M during that time frame, an increase of some 48% in cash terms over previous funding. In terms of £M/medal, that is considerably more than almost all other sports. In return for this funding, the UK equestrian team has considerably underperformed.
In the old days of gentleman amateurism and the pure Corinthian spirit, to accept a couple of bronzes might have been fine but now that UK equestrianism has accepted substantial funding from the taxpayer/National Lottery, it is expected to deliver. And it has not yet done so.
All teams have set backs but if this funding is to show, then there ought to be the strength in depth to make up for this. If equestrianism is to continue accepting the money, then tolerating failure or being third or fourth best is no longer acceptable.
It would also be fantastic were the BBC to get over its football, football, football, football, football, football, football (got the drift?) mania when it comes to determining sports coverage priorities and funding. At a fraction of the cost of the Premiership deal, the Beeb could cover loads of other sports - and aid wider participation.
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Alright jimmymac1981, how can you possibly say that wearing particular items of clothing can determine whether an activity is a sport is or not? The attire of our dressage riders is not only steeped in tradition but reflects the level of turnout of the horse; why should so much time and effort go into platting the mane, using exceptionally clean bandages etc only to be let down by a less than exceptional dress for the rider. Secondly it may be true that some of the horses are from an irish heritage but as long as they are british then surely its fine for them to compete. If the athletes parents' nationality was to be taken into account then i doubt that britain would be doing so well!
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