The draw is out: View the order of go here.
Update: Shenae Lowings (Bold Venture) will be 12th to jump; Shane Rose (Virgil) will be 28th to jump; and Chris Burton (Shadow Man) will be 44th to jump.
Main image: Shane Rose and Virgil, by Michelle Terlato Photography.
Inside Paris | Presented by International Horse Breeders
There are going to be 60 horses and riders in the team show jumping competition starting 7pm AEST tonight. All individual competitors will also take part in the team show jumping competition. This allows all team members and individuals to have equal opportunities to qualify for the individual medal jump off, which takes place some three hours after the team show jumping competition has been completed. The maximum height for this team show jumping competition will be 1.25m and there will be a maximum number of 16 jumping efforts. Anywhere from 11-13 numbered fences. Some of these fences will be A, B or A, B, C, which accounts for the extra jumping efforts.
The team medals will be decided by adding together all three scores of each team and the team with the lowest number of penalties will be the team gold medallist. The next team with the lowest number of penalties will be the team silver medallist and so on.
You can look at the team standings as of right now before the show jumping by going to this link and selecting ‘Team’.
The 25 highest qualified combinations with the least accumulated penalties from dressage, cross country and show jumping after the team show jumping competition are then entitled to go forward to the individual medal jump off starting at 11.00pm AEST after the conclusion of the team show jumping. Note that riders must have completed all three phases to be eligible to make the top 25 and go on to the individual round – so those coming in as a substitution such as Shenae Lowings and Bold Venture will contest the team show jumping competition only.
In this second round of show jumping, which decides the individual medals, the maximum height will be 1.30m and there will be no more than 12 jumping efforts. This round will have a maximum of 9 numbered fences.
The individual medals will be decided by the combinations with the lowest accumulated penalties from the dressage, from the cross country, from the team show jumping and from the individual show jumping.
You can look at the individual standings as of right now before the show jumping by going to this link and selecting ‘Individual’.
There are two Co-Course Show Jumping Designers. Santiago Varela Ullastres from Spain and Gregory Bodo from France. These two course builders have been course building internationally for over 20 years and they both came together at the World Equestrian Games in 2014 in Normandy also in France. Together they are considered brilliant and since 2014 have pretty much officiated together at Olympics and World Championships ever since.
Chris Burton and Shadow Man. Image by Bit-Media.
Show jumping statistics from the Tokyo Olympics
In the Team show jumping competition at Tokyo there were 44 combinations who took part and 12 of them show jumped clear. That is 27% only of riders went clear. So that almost equates to one rider in every four managed to go clear. Yikes this is going to be chaos.
In the Individual show jumping competition at Tokyo there are only 25 riders that go forward and at Tokyo 5 of these riders managed to emerge clear. So that is 20% of riders only come out of the individual competition unscathed. So, in other words only one in every five riders manages a clear. Sounds like heartbreak territory to me!!
Keep in mind that the Tokyo courses were built by the same show jumping course designers here at Paris, Santiago Varela Ullastres and Gregory Bodo.
In amongst all of this technical confusion and multitude of unknowns, Australia does have a potential individual gold medal winging its way through all of these impossibilities in Chris Burton and Shadow Man. To the whole Australian team of Shane Rose on Virgil, Shenae Lowings on Bold Venture, and Chris Burton on Shadow Man, thank you and lots and lots of luck. To Kevin McNab and Don Quidam, who performed so gallantly yesterday and the day before, for your Australian contribution, thank you thank you.
It’s been 24 years since Australia has won a gold medal in eventing. Just hang around everyone, we need the perfect storm, but we just might be going to see a 24-year drought get broken. Good luck Chris Burton and Shadow Man.
Cheers
Heath
