Townend and Great Britain Lead after Day 1 of Eventing in Tokyo

World number one Oliver Townend gave the British team the best possible start when taking the individual lead as the Dressage phase kicked off equestrian Eventing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Baji Koen.

Going second in the first of today’s two sessions, with a further 20 horse-and-rider combinations to go tomorrow morning, the 38-year-old athlete, who is a triple European team gold medallist, produced what he described as “a very safe test” for a score of 23.6 with the Irish-bred grey, Ballaghmor Class.

Team-mate Laura Collett then backed that up with a score of 25.80 for overnight fourth place individually with London 52, but she wasn’t overly pleased with her own performance. “He’s been phenomenal all year and I was aiming for (a score of) 21/22. This year he’s been very close to Ballaghmor Class, but unfortunately it didn’t come off today,” said the rider who, with the same horse, won the CCI5*-L at Pau, France last October.

However her result was plenty good enough to secure pole position for her country this evening.

Leaderboard

It’s a fascinating leaderboard with two-thirds of the dressage competitors now completed. Lying second are Team Sweden, with the hosts from Japan in third and China in fourth place. Few would have expected Germany to be lying fifth and New Zealand, France, Switzerland, USA and Australia stacking up behind them in the field of 15 nations.

A brilliant ride by China’s Alex Hua Tian with Don Geniro brought him closest to Townend’s leading score when putting 23.90 on the board for individual second place while Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Amande de B’Neville lie third on 25.20.

The short action-packed dressage test, specially created for these Olympic Games, takes just 3.5 minutes to complete and, underlining the quality of the field, a total of seven combinations scored below 30 during this morning’s first session. Three more joined that elite group as the day progressed and amongst them was India’s Fouad Mirza riding the experienced 15-year-old gelding Seigneur that competed so successfully for Germany’s Bettina Hoy. “I’m so lucky to ride such a great horse, he’s a gentleman in every sense, kind and honest,” said the athlete who is only the third rider from his country to compete in Olympic Eventing.

Overnight there were some changes to the teams, with both Australia’s Stuart Tinney (Leporis) and Ireland’s Cathal Daniels (Rioghan Rua) withdrawing. Tinney has been replaced by Kevin McNab (Don Quidam) and Daniels by Austin O’Connor (Colorado Blue).

Pressure

Townend said he wasn’t bothered by the pressure of being second into the arena and first to ride for his country. “It wouldn’t be my chosen job in life to be pathfinder but at the same time the first bit is out of the way and he’s (Ballaghmor Class) done a very commendable job. So fingers crossed we keep the work up over the next three or four days and see where we end up”.

There is a lot of talk about the course at Sea Forest where the cross-country phase will take place early on Sunday morning.

“It’s very intense,” Townend said about the track designed by America’s Derek di Grazia. “You’re always on the climb or camber or in the water, or in a combination. The questions are extremely fair, it’s very horse friendly, and if you took each fence individually there wouldn’t be too many problems but at the same time when you add the heat, the terrain, the Olympic pressure and then speed on top of that, it’s going to be causing a lot of trouble and it’s going to be very difficult to get the time.

“Derek is a horseman to start with, and I think he’s a special, talented man at the job. He wants the horses to see where they are going, there’s no tricks out there. Derek doesn’t try to catch horses out, he builds very see-able questions and lets the terrain and the speed do the job for him,” Townend added.

Colleen Loach and Qorry Blue d’Argouges. (MacMillan Photography)

Canada’s Lone Representative Forges Ahead

One of the morning rides came from Colleen Loach, 38, and Qorry Blue d’Argouges, Peter Barry’s 17-year-old Selle Français gelding, who put in a steady, workmanlike test that she later suggested could have used some more zip. Their score of 35.60 placed them in 30th spot at the end of the day.

“Honestly, I was hoping for a little bit better,” she remarked. “We’ve been schooling a lot better, but it is what it is. I think we were lacking a bit of sparkle and a bit of impulsion.” Loach, who has trained extensively with fellow Tokyo 2020 Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu, suggested that the weather could have played a factor, as well as the schedule. “We’re here quite a long time before the competition starts and I think everybody starts to get a little bit, almost dull.”

Regarding the new-format abbreviated test she said, “I like the test, it has a nice flow. It’s over very quickly. You have to really look ahead and think ahead to get the movements right. In and out quickly and on to what Cory likes [cross-country]!”

The Games are like no other competition in terms of pressure and emotion, and Loach is grateful for having previous Olympic experience with Qorry at at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and also having groomed for Peter Barry at London in 2012.

“Going to a team competition is very different; you’re not making decisions so much for yourself, you’re thinking about the team. Now in this case I’m an individual, so it’s a little bit different, but it is helpful to know how it works. You basically show up at the Games and you don’t really make a whole lot of decisions for yourself [laughing]. It’s just a very different mindset and a different way of organizing things.”

With a bit of time before her cross-country round on Saturday, Loach plans to watch a few trips. “I think it is helpful to see if there are certain jumps that horses aren’t reading well. Generally, I like to have a plan and stick with my plan that I know is best for my horse. But there’s a little bit of room to change things up if something’s riding really badly.”

She continued, “I think that Derek has done a great job on that piece of land to have some galloping spaces. I think the last water will cause some problems; the horses will be a bit tired at that point. The coffin as well.”

“I think there are a lot of challenges but I’m looking forward to meeting them. I think [the course suits Qorry] because he is not a fast horse, he’s a super rideable horse, so I won’t really have to change his pace much going into the turns and combination. If he’s feeling like his normal self, it should be a great course for him and he should rock around.”

India’s Fouaad Mirza in Seventh Heaven in Tokyo

India’s Fouaad Mirza made a stunning start to his Olympic career with a superb performance that put him among the top scorers on the opening day of Eventing competition. With Seigneur, Mirza – India’s first-ever Olympic equestrian – posted an impressive dressage score of 28.00 that put him in seventh place. The 29-year-old from Bengaluru out-scored international stars such as Sweden’s Therese Viklund, France’s Christopher Six, USA’s Philip Dutton and New Zealand’s Jonelle Price.

Mirza scored a double silver with Seigneur at the most recent Asian Games in Team and Individual, and having worked under Germany’s Sandra Auffarth, he’s looking to make a significant impact.

“I’m a competitive person,” he told FEI.org. “I’m not interested in just making up the numbers. I came here to do well. My horse is in really good form. We’ll try our very, very best and who knows what we can achieve. It might just be enough to finish among the top few.”

Quotes:

Doug Payne USA (lying 21st): “We prepped at Tryon and to me this course feels a lot like there, lots of turn backs…”

Germany’s Julia Krajewski (lying 3rd): Talking about her mare Amande de B’Neville – “She’s a real galloping machine and a great jumper, she’s always willing to perform and especially this year after Sam (Samurai du Thot, her team silver medal winning horse at Rio 2016 Olympic Games) got seriously ill, it felt as if she really stepped up. Sometimes I think it’s when they feel they are the number one in the stable that they step up then!”

Philip Dutton USA (lying 12th) – Talking about Sunday’s cross-country course: “I’ll spend tomorrow getting to know the course well so I can shave off every second I can and figure out how close I can get to the jumps before I steady up, really get to know it well. It’s a course you have to understand, you have to keep thinking ahead before the next combination comes up.

Kevin McNab AUS (lying 18th) – Kevin was called onto the Australian team when Stuart Tinney had to withdraw – “Unfortunately one of those sports where it does happen, I’m sorry for Stuart but it’s great to be here and there’s such a wealth of knowledge between the team that I’m lucky to be making my debut with them.”

Victoria Scott-Legendre RSA (lying 37th) – Talking about the challenges of competing in her home country – “We are lucky enough to have some really nice venues in South Africa that have wild animals on the property and I’ve had a dressage test where a herd of zebra have come through and there are a couple of places where some giraffe have popped over the trees – the horses really are quite spooky with that, they do a 360 and off we go!”

Results here.

~ with files from Louise Parkes/FEI and Equestrian Canada