Britain Olympic eventers in team gold and individual silver position after dressage

Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser score 28.9 on final day of dressage © FEI/Christophe Taniére

After a 3am dressage conclusion, British viewers wake up to a British lead in the team rankings and one rider lined up for individual silver

Today’s (Saturday 31 July) third and final dressage session saw Tom McEwen and Toledo De Kerser complete a pleasing test to finish with a respectable score of 28.9, just outside of the top 10. This comes after yesterday’s (Friday 30 July) sessions saw Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class provisionally soar to the top of the leader board on 23.6 and Laura Collett with London 52 sit in fourth on 25.8 – though they now lie in second and sixth after the conclusion of today’s competition as we look ahead to the cross-country.

The final rider for Great Britain, and the only British rider still to go, having been a part of the gold winning team at the World Championships in 2018 and with the Pau 5* title to his name, too, it’s fair to say Tom McEwen’s accustomed to riding under pressure. His incredible form this year saw him and the 14-year-old gelding lead the placings in Bicton’s CCI4*-S. Light on the forehand and taking the contact forward throughout – something we love to see in this phase – his test was straight and correct, proving easy to watch from start to finish. With terrific jumping lines, we’re expecting to see great things from this combination in the next phases.

One of the first riders to go, he scored 28.9 to sit in provisional tenth, and while the rest of the competition played out with very few surprises, he ultimately finished in 12^th.

As the day played out, we’d expected a bit of disruption to the top 10, and this came in the form of New Zealand’s Tim Price who rode Vitali to a score of 25.6, who edged 0.2 penalties ahead of Laura to ultimately finish in fifth, and defending Olympic champion Germany’s Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRK, who knocked Oliver Townend’s original lead of 23.6 on Ballaghmor Class by 2.5 penalty points, to finish on 21.1.

There’s now less than 7 penalty points standing between the top 10, so there’ll be only a tiny margin of error for those riders wanting to maintain or better their placing

What’s next?

With dressage all wrapped up, focus now turns to the cross-country. The interim leader board going into the next test – the cross-country – looks like this…

1. Germany’s Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH – 21.1
2. Great Britain’s Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class – 23.6
3. China’s Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro – 23.9
4. Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Amande de b’Neville – 25.2
5. New Zealand’s Tim Price and Vitali – 25.6
6. Great Britain’s Laura Collett and London 52 – 25.8
7. Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto and Vinci de la Vigne – 25.9
8. Switzerland’s Felix Vogg and Colero – 26.7
9. India’s Fouaad Mirza and Seigneur – 28.0
10. Sweden’s Louise Romeike and Cato 60 – 28.0

With a bit of movement in the team table, too, most notable were Germany and New Zealand who shift up the leader board into provisional silver and bronze position, respectively, the battle for team medals will look like this…

1. Great Britain
2. Germany
3. New Zealand
4. Japan
5. Sweden
6. Australia
7. China
8. United States
9. France
10. Switzerland
11. Brazil
12. Poland
13. Ireland
14. Thailand
15. Italy