We started out at a decent hour for Eastern Daylight Time, 7:30 p.m., rather than 4:30 a.m. the way we did this morning, as the third member of each team took their turn in the sandbox for the finale of the dressage phase. As the segment began, Britain stood first and as it ended, Britain remained in the lead.
You can bet the standings will be scrambled, though, after everyone tries to best Derek DiGrazia’s cross-country course at Sea Forest, which is on the water. The horses ship there tonight so they’ll be ready for the start of that segment at 7:45 a.m. Sunday Japanese time.
Watch it on the live stream at www.nbcolympics.com starting at 6:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Saturday (don’t forget Japan is 13 hours ahead of us).
Just to repeat, it will be Sunday morning there, Saturday evening for us.The highlights show on NBC won’t be aired until 11:15 a.m. Sunday, or 1:30 p.m. Sunday on NBCSN for a longer version.
This website will have a story Saturday night, and I’ll do some live blog coverage of key rides.
As tonight’s action concluded, saving the best for next-to-last to go, Germany’s Michael Jung (our coverboy for this post) performed a test that was absolutely by the book and meticulous on FRH Chipmunk, as he works on becoming the first-ever three-time individual Olympic eventing gold medalist.
He passed the overnight individual leader, Great Britain’s Oliver Townend on Ballaghmor Class, earning 21.1 penalties to Oliver’s 23.60.
If you look at the photo at the top of the page, you can see that Michael really went for it in the extended canter, even leaning forward to emphasize his speed.
Michael Jung nails it.
That’s pure Michael Jung, who is also proficient in Grand Prix dressage and show jumping. Recently married, he is the father of a son, who will enjoy quite a legacy from his dad.
Michael’s score gave Germany a total of 80.4 penalties to mover up from fifth and stand second to Great Britain, which has 78.30 penalties..
Tom McEwen, Britain’s final rider in the dressage, earned 28.90 with Toledo de Kerser to stand 12th individually.
“I’m actually very pleased with him, he coped very well in there – he loves situations likes that,” said Tom. “It was just the two early (flying) changes that really cost me – the preparation was good, but they were a bit of a flop really.
“He’s been amazing since he got here, absolutely unreal – which makes it more of a shame to go in there and get a 28 or 29 because I knew he could have been very low 20s or even into the teens on the right day.”
Even though cross-country day July 31 is Michael’s 39th birthday, he’s not taking it easy with the challenge ahead of him.
“Now is definitely not a time to rest, we have to focus, ignore everything else and ride as if we were middling in this competition, we will have to fight properly,” he said.
Speaking of his relationship with Chipmunk, Michael noted, “We had a very good partnership today, everything worked like I wished. Since the European Championships in 2019, I’ve had more time to train with him. We had a long winter to work more and have had many more competitions this year, so everything is going much better.”
New Zealand moved up to third place after Tim Price, world number two, had a smooth test with Vitali, save for a rushed second lead change. His 25.60 mark on the horse previously ridden by Jock Paget, got the Kiwis on a total of 86.40 penalties and put him fifth individually..
Japan is fourth on 90.10 (I told you in my preview story they could get close to the podium; just watch them on cross-country). Sweden stands fifth on 91.10, followed by Australia (93.4) and China, yes China! (93.6). Alex Hua Tian, the most experienced member of that team, is third individually on Don Geniro (23.90).
So what about the U.S.? It has moved up one place to eighth with 94.60 penalties.
A lot of American hopes were resting on anchor man Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg, who started well and had a nice accurate halt. But the horse broke going forward after the reinback that follows the halt. Obviously on high alert, he then trotted when asked to canter, but somehow got decent flying changes. His score of 31.1 penalties puts Boyd 20th individually..
Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg. (Photo courtesy U.S. Equestrian)
Obviously, it wasn’t the ride Boyd had hoped for.
“To be honest, it was quite disappointing,” he said, noting Tseterleg has been ” so good in the dressage for years and years.”
So Boyd was surprised at how things went, citing “One moment in the reinback when he fell behind me and misunderstood me and cantered out and screwed up the next movement. It was some great moments and some disastrous moments.”
As he observed, “You sort of come here hoping to give a personal best,” and it must be remembered that the dressage is only the first of three phases.
“The cross-country is so difficult and so hard to get the time I think we’re in with a chance if we can deliver three good rounds on cross-country,” said Boyd.
“We’ve got good, seasoned horses older and experienced. We’ve got nothing to lose by going out there and giving it a crack.”
The highest-placed American after dressage is Phillip Dutton on Z in 12th; Doug Payne is in the middle of the pack of 62, standing 30th. Both men rode dressage on Thursday.
Other individual rankings of note include: Germany’s Julia Krajewski, the former rider of Michael Jung’s Chipmunk, fourth on Amande D B’Neville (25.20), then Tim Price as we mentioned, with Britain’s Laura Collett on the appropriately named London 52 (25.80).in sixth.
For the full list of individual results, click on this.
So you can plan ahead, here is a link to the order of go for cross-country.
