Individual medal contender held at final trot-up for Rio Olympics eventing

Three horses were sent to the holding box at the Rio Olympics eventing final trot-up this morning.

The first to be held over for re-inspection was Ireland’s Cooley Rorkes Drift, ridden by Jonty Evans, who lies 16th overnight. He was passed when he came before the ground jury of Marilyn Payne, Sandy Phillips and Andrew Bennie for a second time.

The next horse to be held was Japan’s The Duke Of Cavan (Yoshiaki Oiwa, 17th overnight), who was also accepted when he returned. The other Japanese horse, Ryuzo Kitajima’s ride Just Chocolate, was withdrawn and did not appear at the horse inspection.

The final competitor to head to the holding box was an individual medal contender — Phillip Dutton’s ride Mighty Nice, who is fifth overnight for the USA. However, he too was allowed to continue in the competition when he was re-inspected.

Britain’s horses — Chilli Morning (William Fox-Pitt), Billy The Biz (Pippa Funnell), Ceylor LAN (Kitty King) and Quicklook V (Gemma Tattersall) — all passed without drama. Britain is one of only four nations to have four combinations still in the event, the others being France, Sweden and the home side, Brazil.

This first round of showjumping gets underway today at 10am local time (2pm in Britain) and determines the team medals. Then at 2pm the top 25 (but a maximum of three per nation) jump again for the individual honours. Follow the showjumping here.

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Britain is out of medal contention in the eventing now after problems on yesterday’s cross-country. Team GB lies eighth in the team competition and our best individual is William Fox-Pitt in 22nd.

Australia sits in the individual and team gold positions going into today, with Chris Burton having the upper hand individually riding Santano II. New Zealand is in silver, with France in bronze. Germany’s Michael Jung and Sam FBW, Olympic champions in 2012, are currently second individually, and France’s Astier Nicolas and Piaf De B’Neville occupies the individual bronze position.

Pippa Roome

H&H magazine editor and eventing editor

Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.