Tricky double knocks British riders out of the medals in showjumping individual finals

Ben Maher and Dallas Vegas Batilly jumping in the team competition. Credit: British Equestrian/Jon Stroud Media

The individual showjumping concluded what’s been an exciting 12 days of equestrian competition at Paris 2024, and this last event proved as thrilling as the previous ones as riders took on what turned out to be a challenging and demanding course.

As in the earlier showjumping competitions, the testing course was built by Spain’s Santiago Varela and France’s Gregory Bodo, with riders tackling it today in reverse order according to their results in yesterday’s qualifier. The leading qualifying rider and, therefore, the last to go in the final was Frenchman Julien Epaillard riding Dubai du Cedre, thanks to his fastest clear round yesterday. However, on the day that mattered, he was pipped to the post into fourth place and outside the medals after scoring 4 penalties in a time of 79.18 seconds.

All three Team GB members made it through to the final – Scott Brash and Harry Charles having achieved clears in the qualifier, putting them in 11^th and 12^th places respectively according to time, and Ben Maher at 28^th with four faults, illustrating just how tough the qualifying competition had been.

Sadly, in the final, it just wasn’t to be Team GB’s day. Harry Charles withdrew from the competition after his horse, Romeo 88, suffered an overreach and, as a result, wasn’t on top form, while reigning Olympic champion Ben Maher’s round on 11-year-old mare Dallas Vegas Batilly incurred 4 penalties in 81.70 seconds – a dropped rail on the second part of the double putting him out of the medals this time around. Following his round, Ben said: “It’s a big course with a little bit of everything but it’s the Olympics, so it’s what we expect. It’s a course that’s fair to the horses, though, and my horse was incredible, but we just misjudged that back rail, unfortunately. In a competition like this, it’s small margins and, with the best horses in the world here today, you need to go clear. We came here to win but, this time, it just wasn’t meant to be. Still, it’s been a very good week and we’re going home with gold as a team.”

It was a similar story for GB’s remaining rider Scott Brash when the second part of the double proved an issue once again. Riding, Jefferson – a 15-year-old gelding who isn’t the easiest of horses – Scott, like Ben before him, just knocked the top rail, leading to 4 penalties in a time of 81.23 seconds. Speaking afterwards, Scott said: “My horse has been amazing all week and again today. I’m delighted with him. We had one mistake but that double was quite shadowy, so I don’t blame him. He jumped in well but then had a little look, and quite a lot of other horses did the same thing. For the rest of the course, he was foot perfect. Of course, as a competitor, initially you’re disappointed and you analyse it but when you reflect over the week, you can see it’s been incredible. As a team, we’ve worked really well together and the horses have been amazing, so we need to enjoy the moment. Compared with other sports in the Olympics, ours is unique because there’s an animal involved and anything can happen, as we’ve seen today. We also have men and women of all ages competing together on the same basis and each with the chance of a medal. I’m extremely proud that Team GB is bringing home gold.”

So, in the end, it was to be no medals this time for the individual British showjumpers, with gold going to German rider Christian Kukuk and Checker 47, silver to Swiss rider Steve Guerdat on Dynamix de Belheme and bronze to The Netherlands’ Maikel van der Vleuten and Beauville Z. The three riders had produced the only clear rounds of the competition and the final placings were decided in a fast and exciting jump-off between them. Scott and Ben finished at sixth and ninth respectively.

Nevertheless, despite today’s disappointing result in terms of medals, Team GB across the equestrian disciplines has had an impressive week overall, with two golds (team eventing and showjumping) and three bronzes (team and individual dressage and individual eventing), to give a total of five medals to bring back home and add to Great Britain’s final medal tally.