Meech eliminated in Jumping final. Maher grabs gold.
Above: Daniel Meech and Cinca 3. Photo credit: Libby Law Photography
Going into last night’s Individual Jumping Final, Daniel Meech and the grey mare Cinca 3 were New Zealand’s last combination standing after his compatriots Uma O’Neill and Clockwise of Greehill Z and Bruce Goodin and Backatorps Danny V had earlier been unable to finish in the top thirty places in the Qualifying Round. In fact, Meech, despite producing a clear round, barely scraped into the Final, finishing in 30th place. For the full story of the Qualifying round, click HERE.
Although Meech qualified in last place for the final, he certainly had experience on his side, this being his third Olympics after Atlanta where he represented as a 22-year-old and the 2004 Athens Games, where his 12th place remains the highest ever Olympic finish for a New Zealand rider in individual Jumping.
Being an Olympic final, the Santiago Varela designed course was just about as hard as it gets. There were 14 fences, but with two doubles and a treble, the course required 18 efforts and with the rails set as high as they go, including seven fences over 1.60m and the last fence set at 1.66m, it would take a supreme effort to get around the track clear.
Because of their 30th place in the Qualifier, Meech and Cinca 3 were the first combination on course. The first half of their round was fantastic, clearing everything at a steady tempo, but then the challenges began. First it was one, two then finally three rails down and with a time of 93.49 seconds on an 89 second course, it was a total of 14 penalties. This was certainly not what Meech would have been hoping for and it only took a further six combinations for their score to be bettered by three of them and his hopes of a medal were gone.
However, there was drama to come. When Meech and Cinca 3 got back to the post competition inspection Cinca 3 was found to have a superficial nick on her side and unfortunately were eliminated. “It was an unlucky nick from the spur” said Meech. “There is no wound or cut and for that reason we protested the (elimination) ruling, but the rule is the rule”.
According to Meech, “She jumped amazing tonight. I am really happy with her. I think she knew she was going to have to try really hard. She jumped very big with the wall going into the first double so was so close to the second and you could then feel she just slowly lost a little energy. It just wasn’t our day today.”
Of the 30 combinations in the final, only six could manage a clear round over this most testing of courses. One by one, they participated in a thrilling jump-off where again, all six went clear. With each following combination for a while going faster than the previous, the excitement for the very small band of spectators was palpable. In the end, it was Ben Maher from Great Britain and the super gelding Explosion W, who took the gold in a time of 37.85 seconds, just 0.17 seconds faster than the Swedish combination of Peder Fredricson and All In, who for the second Olympics in a row took home the silver medal. The win by Maher means that the gold medal also went to Great Britain for the second time in a row after Nick Skelten and Big Star were triumphant in Rio 5 years ago. The Netherlands star Maikel van der Vleuten and Beauville Z were almost a second slower in third place. In a indication of how strong they are performing going into the teams competition on Friday and Saturday night, Sweden provided both the fourth and fifth combinations along with Fredricson in second. To underline the quality of the Jumping, the two Swedes and the Japanese rider in sixth place, all jumped double clear on an enormous and testing track, and go home without a medal.
We look forward to tomorrow night the team competition starting tomorrow night and cheering on our New Zealand team.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Jumping Individual Final – Top 6 and the New Zealand combination
PLACE | RIDER | HORSE |
1st | Ben Maher (GBR) | Explosion W |
2nd | Peder Fredricson (SWE) | All In |
3rd | Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) | Beauville Z |
4th | Henrik von Eckerman (SWE) | King Edward |
5th | Malin Baryard-Johnsson (SWE) | Indiana |
6th | Daisuke Fukushima (JPN) | Chanyon |
EL | Daniel Meech | Cinca 3 |