Britain’s Tom McEwen has won the Olympic eventing individual silver medal on his Olympic debut with Toledo De Kerser at the Tokyo Games 2020.
In a nail-biting final with everything to play for, Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Amande De B’Neville took gold, and Australia’s Andrew Hoy and Vassily De Lassos claimed the bronze.
Third last to go, 30-year-old Tom produced a stunning cool and collected round as they jumped clear to keep the pressure on provisional leader Julia and Oliver Townend. While Tom picked up 0.4 time-penalties, which are the only faults to add to his dressage score 29.3, he held Andrew at bay, who finished on his dressage score 29.6.
Tom has had a wonderful first Games with the 14-year-old gelding, owned by Fred and Penny Barker, Jane Inns and his mother Ali.
“It’s not really hitting me – it’s taking a bit of time,” Tom said about his silver medal.
“It’s all been super special and he’s [Toledo De Kerser] been unbelievable. I’ve messed up in the past in places where I shouldn’t have, so to give it back to him is great.”
Tom, who took some advice from Team GB showjumper Scott Brash with regard to lines and distances, said the second round went better than the first.
“He went higher and he was more fluid,” he said. “Scott gave me a lot of help before I started, which was super helpful. For us coming out again you have no idea [how it is going to go], it could have gone one or two ways – and he went more excitable.
“You just crack on with the job. If I get him into the right place, he’s going to get up in the air so it’s only me that can mess it up really. I must say I’ve loved the pressure this week, for me it’s why I get up every morning.”
Oliver and Ballaghmor Class provisionally sat in silver as they went into the individual showjumping final. The pair picked up four-faults in the earlier qualifying round, and with no fences to spare, the pressure was piled on. An early pole at fence two, a big upright, and 0.8 time-penalties proved extremely costly and dropped the pair to fifth, on a final score of 32.4. Last to go Julia rode a faultless clear for the gold.
Laura Collett and London 52, who also had four faults in the qualifier, entered looking like they still had plenty left in the tank but the pair had the penultimate two fences down in the final line. They finished on a final score of 37.8 and ninth place.
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