Tokyo, Japan – August 5, 2021 – Following Wednesday’s thrilling Individual Jumping Final in which Great Britain’s Ben Maher and Explosion W claimed gold, all of the horses presented at this evening’s second Jumping Horse Inspection were accepted, and the stage is now set for the Team competition to begin tomorrow night.
Further changes may be made before the competition begins, but to date the confirmed pre-competition changes are as follows:
For Argentina, Fabian Sejanes is out and Matias Albarracin comes in
For Belgium, Niels Bruynseels is out and Pieter Devos comes in
For Brazil, Yuri Mansur is out and Pedro Veniss comes in
For China, You Zhang is out and Yaofeng Li comes in
For Czech Republic, Kamil Papousek is out and Ondrej Zvara comes in
For Egypt, Abdel Said is out and Mohamed Talaat comes in
For France, Mathieu Billot is out and Simon Delestre comes in
For Great Britain, Scott Brash is out, his horse was withdrawn and therefore not presented, Holly Smith comes in
For Germany, Christian Kukuk is out and Maurice Tebbel comes in
For Ireland, Cian O’Connor is out, his horse was withdrawn and therefore not presented, Shane Sweetnam comes in
For Morocco, Ali Ahrach’s horse USA de Riverland is out and will be replaced by Golden Lady
For Mexico, Manuel Gonzalez Dufrane is out and Patricia Pasquel comes in
For New Zealand, Uma O’Neill is out and Tom Tarver-Priebe comes in
For Switzerland, Beat Mandli is out and Bryan Balsiger comes in
For USA, Kent Farrington is out and McLain Ward comes in.
A total of 19 teams will compete in the first Team competition and the order of go is as follows:
1, Czech Republic; 2, China; 3, Japan; 4, Israel; 5, Mexico; 6, Argentina; 7, Morocco; 8, New Zealand; 9, Ireland; 10, Egypt; 11, France; 12, Sweden; 13, USA; 14, Great Britain; 15, Brazil; 16, Switzerland; 17, Belgium; 18, Germany; 19, Netherlands.
Following the U.S. Show Jumping team’s performance during the Individual Qualifier Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland discussed his analysis of the track and what he expects in the Jumping Team Qualifier and Team Finals competitions, which will be the focus for the next two days.
“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 [Tuesday] and the riders rode well. It just wasn’t our night, but the flip side is we’ll have fresher horses on Friday night,” said 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.”
On Tuesday, Jessica Springsteen and Don Juan van de Donkhoeve were the first pair to test the Santiago Varela (ESP) 1.65m track under the lights, crossing through the finish in 87.15 seconds and an unfortunate 4 faults. Kent Farrington and Gazelle were the second combination out for the team and just barely rubbed the first rail of last double to finish with a time of 88.57 seconds and an additional 4 faults added to their score. Laura Kraut and Baloutinue rounded out the combinations for the U.S. Jumping Team and completed the track with 8 faults in 85.23 seconds.
The competition will begin at 17.00 local time and the best 10 teams will qualify for Saturday evening’s Jumping Team Final. Click here for the full order of go.
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