Both horses who had to be re-presented following this morning’s Olympic showjumping first trot-up failed this afternoon’s re-inspection. This means France’s Kevin Staut and Mexico’s Andres Azcarraga are out of the Paris Olympics team competition and both nations will need to field their alternate riders when the jumping action starts tomorrow.
Losing Kevin Staut and Viking D’La Rousserie from the Paris Olympics team showjumping will be a heavy blow for France as he is an experienced championship rider. He was a team gold medallist at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and has four other senior championship medals to his name including individual gold at the 2009 Europeans at Windsor with Kraque Boom.
“What we’ve diagnosed for the moment is it’s a haematoma in the foot,” said. Kevin. “When the horse is ridden on soft ground, you can’t see anything worrying. Maybe yesterday when he was on the canter track he knocked himself a little bit, like horses sometimes do when they are working.”
Kevin confirmed that nothing was evident the day before the inspection and that the team noticed it when one of the horse’s heels was a little pink. He was treated between the morning initial inspection and the re-inspection, but “it hasn’t been enough”.
“His career has been punctuated by different incidents, but never something like this,” added Kevin. “For this selection, he has had MRIs which showed no concern around his old injuries. Today has absolutely nothing to do with any veterinary issues the horse has had before.
“My role as an athlete is to follow the rules and accept them. It’s an enormous disappointment, I don’t have the words to describe it. It’s a horrible feeling but it’s the sport. I’m now here to support the team so they can do the best possible.”
France will now field alternate rider Olivier Perreau, who finished eighth at last year’s Europeans with his ride here, the 11-year-old mare Dorai D’Aiguilly. Olivier will be making his Olympic debut. He will join Simon Delestre riding I Amelusina R 51 and Julien Epaillard with Dubai Du Cedre.
The elimination of Andres Azcarraga means Mexico brings in alternate Federico Fernandez, who will ride Romeo. This will be Federico’s fourth Olympics and he rode this 13-year-old grey stallion at the 2022 World Championships and last year’s Pan Am Games. His team mates are Eugenio Garza Perez with Contago and Carlos Hank Guerreiro riding Porthos Maestro WH Z.
Technically Kevin and Andres can present their horses at the horse inspection for the individual competition on Saturday afternoon (3 August) and take part in that contest if they pass, but of course that would depend on whether their horses are fit to compete.
“Concerning the possibility of putting him in as an individual, we first have to know exactly what this is. Everything would have to fall into place to make this decision. It’s in four days’ time. For the moment I need the headspace to try to digest this,” concluded Kevin.
The team competition tomorrow starts with riders from all 20 teams tackling one round against the clock, with time and penalties combined to rank each competitor. The top 10 teams then progress to Friday’s team medal decider, when they start again on a clean slate of zero penalties.
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