Olympic Happy Hour: July 31

Throughout the Olympics, Horse Nation will be capping off each day with a pint-sized synopsis of the most recent Olympic equestrian sporting festivities. Here’s your Happy Hour report for Tuesday, July 31.

Certainly, the man who’s enjoying the happiest happy hour of them all today is Germany’s Michael Jung, proud owner of two new shiny gold medals. As the reigning team and individual European Champion and winner of the 2010 individual gold at the WEG, his historic achievements today with Sam are jewels in an already sparkling crown.

It was a tough day for many riders, whose horses were struggling after yesterday’s cross-country efforts. The U.S. stepped off on a sore note this morning, literally, when Boyd Martin withdrew Otis at the jog. With their prospects for setting foot on the podium slipping further away, the remainder of the team delivered mixed results, ranging from Karen O’Connor’s solid double clear to Phillip Dutton’s uncharacteristically disappointing ride on Mystery Whisper, who stopped out halfway round the course. The U.S. team young’uns, Will Coleman and Tiana Coudray, had 0 and 8 jumping faults respectively plus a bit of time.

The Olympic format requires two rounds on the final day of eventing: the first counting toward team and the second counting toward individual. Being in the top 25, Karen and Phillip moved on to the second round, where Karen and Mr. Medicott handily earned themselves a 9th place finish and Phillip took advantage of the opportunity to improve upon his first round. [Individual Olympic Final Results]

At the end of yet another eventful day, it was Germany for the gold, followed by Great Britain for the silver and New Zealand for the bronze.

Team Results:
1. Germany
2. Great Britain
3. New Zealand
4. Sweden
5. Ireland
6. Australia
7. United States
[Full Team Results]

Didn’t get to watch it the first g0-round? There’s still time: NBC Show Jumping Replay. And be sure to check out Eventing Nation‘s extensive coverage–the site has done an absolutely phenomenal job of keeping us in the loop these past four days.

The Olympic equestrian competition returns on Thursday with the beginning of team and individual dressage. [Schedule]

Go eventing.

Your Olympic, European & World Champion, photo by Erin Gilmore