Today in Tokyo: Stage Set for Olympic Team Jumping Battle

August 5, 2021DeAnn SloanEdited Press Release#OLYMPICS, Tokyo OlympicsComments Off

There’s just one more set of medals to be doled out to equestrians in Tokyo: Team Jumping, which includes a Friday qualifier and a Saturday final with the best 10 teams. See who’s out and who’s in.

This report was compiled from FEI and US Equestrian press releases.

Following last night’s thrilling Individual Jumping Final in which Great Britain’s Ben Maher and Explosion W claimed gold, all of the horses presented at this evening’s second Jumping Horse Inspection were accepted, and the stage is now set for the Team competition to begin tomorrow night.

Further changes may be made up to two hours before the competition begins, but to date the confirmed pre-competition changes are as follows:

For Argentina, Fabian Sejanes is out and Matias Albarracin comes in
For Belgium, Niels Bruynseels is out and Pieter Devos comes in
For Brazil, Yuri Mansur is out and Pedro Veniss comes in
For China, You Zhang is out and Yaofeng Li comes in
For Czech Republic, Kamil Papousek is out and Ondrej Zvara comes in
For Egypt, Abdel Said is out and Mohamed Talaat comes in
For France, Mathieu Billot is out and Simon Delestre comes in
For Great Britain, Scott Brash is out, his horse was withdrawn and therefore not presented, Holly Smith comes in
For Germany, Christian Kukuk is out and Maurice Tebbel comes in
For Ireland, Cian O’Connor is out, his horse was withdrawn and therefore not presented, Shane Sweetnam comes in
For Morocco, Ali Ahrach’s horse USA de Riverland is out and will be replaced by Golden Lady
For Mexico, Manuel Gonzalez Dufrane is out and Patricia Pasquel comes in
For New Zealand, Uma O’Neill is out and Tom Tarver-Priebe comes in
For Switzerland, Beat Mandli is out and Bryan Balsiger comes in
For USA, Kent Farrington is out and McLain Ward comes in.

A total of 19 teams will compete in the first Team competition and the order of go is as follows:

1, Czech Republic; 2, China; 3, Japan; 4, Israel; 5, Mexico; 6, Argentina; 7, Morocco; 8, New Zealand; 9, Ireland; 10, Egypt; 11, France; 12, Sweden; 13, USA; 14, Great Britain; 15, Brazil; 16, Switzerland; 17, Belgium; 18, Germany; 19, Netherlands.

The competition will begin at 19.00 local time and the best 10 teams will qualify for Saturday evening’s Jumping Team Final.

More details here.

Update on Cian O’Connor’s horse Kilkenny

Clearly the images of Cian O’Connor’s horse Kilkenny are distressing to see, but the gelding was immediately checked by veterinarians straight after last night’s Jumping Individual Final at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The vets established that this was a nosebleed (epistaxis) and, as a precaution, the horse was sent to the onsite Veterinary Clinic for further examination.

The horse was treated and returned to its own stable last night. Following consultation with the onsite veterinary treatment team, the Irish team veterinarian, the athlete and chef d’equipe, it was agreed that the horse would not be presented at today’s horse inspection and will therefore take no further part in the Games.

In addition to ongoing monitoring by the Irish team veterinarian, one of the onsite Veterinary Clinic Team Leaders re-examined the horse this morning and reported that the horse had improved considerably overnight.

Under the FEI Jumping Rules, blood on the flanks or in the horse’s mouth results in elimination, however, equine epistaxis is not a cause for elimination. As a result, Cian O’Connor and the nine-year-old Irish-bred gelding were ranked seventh in the Jumping Individual Final after completing the course clear of jumping penalties and with just a single time fault.

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