No sporting body can have rules for every bizarre eventuality. You must be able to assume that the vast majority of participants have a modicum of common sense and integrity. Who, after all, would have thought you’d need to spell out that riders musn’t pass off one horse as being another in the middle of a competition, or to invent entire endurance rides and lift their “results” from something else?
You wouldn’t think, either, that you’d need a rule to deal with the sabotage of a show jumping round by a clothed streaker but, believe it or not, there IS a rule for that – Jumping Article 233.3. This, at least, is what worked against the Irish in Aachen following the team final at the Europeans, during what must have seemed like a very long night of legal sparring.
Ireland had just lost an Olympic qualifying slot by just 0.38 faults. They argued that Cian O’Connor and Good Luck, ’till then clearing everything by a foot, were distracted by a member of the arena party who sprinted across their path before diving for cover into a flower bed. Good Luck – what an inappropriate name! – then had the very next fence down. This article from the Irish Examiner contains two clips from different angles.
However, the FEI said that under Article 233.3, O’Connor had the opportunity to stop voluntarily due to the unforeseen circumstances beyond his control; however he chose not to.
Is this what this rule allows for, though? In full it says: “If the Athlete stops voluntarily to signal to the Ground Jury that the obstacle to be jumped is wrongly built or if due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of the Athlete, he is prevented from continuing his round under normal circumstances, the clock must be stopped immediately.”
I am not a lawyer, but I can read, and I don’t think the broad sweep of unforeseen circumstances applies because O’Connor wasn’t prevented from continuing. The way in which he was disadvantaged was because his concentration was severely distracted as he was setting up for a tricky turn.
Even if O’Connor had memorised Article 233.3, was it reasonable to expect him to assess in a split second whether it applied as the mystery sprinter flashed by? It cannot be said that Good Luck’s forward movement was physically impeded as such, which is what this rule is for.
Even if the ring steward had mis-timed his dash and been dealt a glancing blow by Good Luck, with his momentum the horse could still have cantered on, albeit unbalanced for a few strides.
Article 233.3 must have been written to account for the rare occasion a rider spots that a fence has not been correctly re-set after a previous horse’s knock-down, or when a jump is blown over by a gust of wind as the rider approaches it.
I don’t see a rule that has the latitude to deal with the shock factor of a major distraction on the field of play. If there isn’t such a rule, then more subjectivity must surely apply?
We have heard not a peep from Aachen, not in English anyway, or from the dummkopf involved. Aachen, of all places, must be mortified about what has happened, but I daresay they can’t be seen to apologise because that would imply culpability, and the legal battle is not over yet. Horse Sport Ireland is appealing to the FEI Tribunal and, if that fails, no doubt to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
I would certainly like to know what the arena bod thought he was doing. By O’Connor’s round, 20 horses had already jumped, so observers were familiar with the riding line. Once he realised he was potentially in the way, why did this numbnut run straight into Good Luck’s direction of travel rather than away from it?
This can’t end happily. If the Tribunal or CAS find in favour of Cian, there will simply be a new set of appeals from the Spanish thus deposed.
Under jumping rules, I can’t spot the scope to send more than two individuals per unqualified nation to Rio, so it doesn’t look as if the Irish can aim for a “composite” team of three from the individual rankings, as can be achieved in dressage. Even if the FEI was persuaded to grant a waiver over composites, you can then easily imagine the torrent of requests from other countries.
The “sudden death” approach of Olympic qualifying in jumping seems rife with injustices. Consistency is rarely rewarded. Belgium, winner in 2015 of the upper division European Furusiyya Nations Cup leagues, did not even qualify for the team top 10 in Aachen. Yet Spain, bottom of Europe division one, having never finished higher than fourth at any of their counting Furusiyya shows, got their Rio ticket at Aachen.
In Europe division 2, which has two more shows to go, Finland has a spectacular lead, yet it’s the riders-for-hire Ukrainian side (currently sixth in that league) that obtained that region’s Rio slot.
We all know there is a huge element of luck on the day in horse sport, but I am not sure Olympic qualifying should be decided at single events any more. The FEI has already floated using the Nations Cup series for WEG qualification. Maybe it’s time to employ it for the Olympics too.
Meanwhile, Britain and Switzerland managed to qualify for Rio without the help of their respective leading riders, albeit for very different reasons.
Michael Whitaker, 55, winner of 15 team medals at his Olympic Games, world and European championships since 1984, has never been more effusive and excited. He also stated he thought our Aachen squad – all riding horses at the beginning of their careers rather than the end – should be kept intact for Rio. Ergo, no Scott Brash. Expect rumblings about the world number one’s apparent loyalties to continue over the months to come.
