Today is the individual final of the Rio Olympics showjumping and Britain has two riders in the running, Ben Maher and Nick Skelton.
Riders start in reverse order of merit according to their penalties from the earlier rounds, although their earlier faults do not actually count towards the individual medals — everyone starts on a clean slate today.
The British combinations’ approximate times for the first round are:
- Nick Skelton on Beverley Widdowson’s Big Star — fourth into the arena, approximately 10.06am local time (2.06pm British time)
- Ben Maher on Jane Forbes Clark’s Tic Tac — ninth into the arena, approximately 10.16am local time (2.16pm British time)
The second round is open to the top 20 riders after the first barrage, including those with equality of penalties for 20th place. The second round begins at 1.30pm local time (5.30pm British time).
Follow all the action today with H&H Live.
Only the leading 35 riders from the earlier rounds of competition have the opportunity to start today, with a maximum of three pairs for each nation coming forward. This means Switzerland’s Jannika Sprunger (Bonne Chance CW) and Germany’s Ludger Beerbaum (Casello) have missed out as they qualified on merit, but so did three others from their countries. Ludger announced his retirement from riding at championships yesterday after he collected team bronze on Wednesday.
Continued below…
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The horses still in the competition all underwent an inspection last night in front of ground jury president Stephan Ellenbruch (GER), and foreign veterinary delegate Tim Randle (GBR) to ensure their fitness to continue and all passed. Emerald, ridden by Harrie Smolders of the Netherlands, was sent to the holding box but was accepted when he was re-presented.