France gave their supportive home crowd even more reason to celebrate with a superb eventing team silver medal as Japan landed its first ever Olympic eventing medal by taking bronze.
The format of having all three scores counting in this Olympic eventing team contest – used for the first time in Tokyo – made for edge-of-your-seat viewing.
The French side had one hand on the team silver after cross-country and were breathing down the necks of the British leaders. A smattering of French rails – four, to be exact – gave Britain a little more wiggle room to secure the gold, while France was able to tighten its grip on that team silver.
This Paris silver completes the full set of Olympic medals for both Nicolas Touzaint and Karim Florent Laghouag. It is also a second Olympic medal for Karim’s ride, Triton Fontaine, who he piloted to team bronze in Tokyo. As team anchor Stéphane Landois landed after the final fence with Chaman Dumontceau, he looked to the sky – a moment in memory of the gelding’s former rider, Thaïs Méheust, who died in a fall with this horse in 2019.
The crowd at Versailles screamed their riders home across country yesterday, and filled the packed stands today to cheer their heroes to team silver.
“When Stefan crossed the line. I thought, ‘we did it!’ It’s been a lot of pressure for a long time. So knowing we had a medal was a big relief,” said Nicolas, who piloted Diabolo Menthe.
What a moment, too for Japan. The nation that put on their beautiful home games to empty stands owing to Covid restrictions and came so close to landing an eventing medal when Kazuma Tomoto finished fourth at that Games.
The nation was in provisional bronze overnight, but the withdrawal of Ryuzo Kitajima’s ride Cekatinka at this morning’s veterinary inspection was a blow. The horse, rightly, comes first.
Tanaka Toshiyuki and Jefferson were drafted in to showjump with 20 penalties added to the team score for the substitution. Japan were now in provisional fifth and chances of a medal looked slim.
But eventing is a three-phase sport and such was the quality of team members’ showjumping performances – all producing jumping clears with just a smattering of time-faults – that the side was able to climb back up onto that team podium.
“I still cannot believe it!” said Yoshiaki Oiwa, who was riding Pippa Funnell’s 2019 Burghley winner MGH Grafton Street and is also in provisional fifth ahead of today’s individual final.
“When I see the podium, then probably I will feel it.”
As all four members of the Japanese squad contributed to the performance, Kazuma (Vinci De La Vigne), Ryuzo, Yoshi, and Tanaka, will all take home a team bronze medal.
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