It wasn’t a good day to be a British rider at the Agria FEI European Eventing Championships today — unless your name was Laura Collett or Tom McEwen.
This brilliant pair — who made up 50% of the Olympic gold medal-winning teams at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games — kept British hopes of a medal alive by galloping home clear to lie first (Laura) and third (Tom) overnight.
Laura and London 52 pulled off the second fastest time of the day when finishing with six time-faults to add. They were 10 seconds quicker than dressage leaders Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH — the reigning individual Olympic champions — to sneak ahead going into tomorrow’s showjumping finale.
The difference between them is just 1.7 penalties, meaning tomorrow’s round will need to be fault-free in order to clinch individual gold.
Tom is also in the hunt for an individual medal, lying third at this stage with JL Dublin.
“It’s all a bit of a blur, to be honest,” said Laura after her round. “I had great advice from Tom, who had a brilliant ride, and he said, ‘look, just save a little bit for the end, you can’t use up too much at the start, and really get stuck in.
“There were problems all over the course, so there wasn’t just one particular fence that we had to focus on. It was hard work out there, but I couldn’t have asked any more of him [London 52]. He just kept on fighting.
“He was quite feisty at the start, which put me off a bit because I couldn’t find a rhythm. Halfway through I gave him a terrible ride through the rollercoaster thing and I thought, ‘right, you’ve got to stop doing that’ and then he was magic. He galloped all the way to the end.”
‘It’s been hideous’
Six British riders galloped out of the startbox today, but only two came home. The other four — team members Yasmin Ingham and Piggy March, plus individuals Caroline Harris and Bubby Upton — all fell off.
It means Britain is now out of contention for a team medal.
“It’s been pretty hideous, I’m not going to lie. I watched the first few and was like, ‘Oh God’. Once I got on [London 52], I thought he’s my horse of a lifetime and he gives me no reason not to trust him.
“[British team trainer] Chris Bartle has very much helped over the last few years in saying just trust him, trust his jump, don’t try and do too much, put him on the line and let him do the rest.
“This year he has come out and shown that that’s what he likes as well. He is an amazing jumper, so to have that feeling and belief in him, and when he rewards me like that, it’s just a hell of a feeling.”
Laura said she and her team have really worked on the horse’s fitness since Luhmuhlen in June.
“We’ve really worked on on his fitness because I felt like I hadn’t quite got him to the point that I’ve maybe had him before,” she explained.
“Whether it’s because he’s a bit older or he’s just more laid back with everything now, we didn’t give him a huge break after Luhmuhlen and although he hasn’t run very much we’ve kept him really fit. It showed today and hopefully it will pay off tomorrow, and he’ll feel amazing when he comes out.”
Germany charges ahead
Germany’s lead has increased significantly in the team contest and, barring a disaster, wining gold looks likely tomorrow.
They are way ahead on a collective score of 113.7, compared to Ireland (150.7) and Switzerland (161.3), who are sitting in silver and bronze respectively.
Team France is close behind on 167.1, while Austria sits on 183.7 at this stage.
Any fences down tomorrow will cost four faults each, plus there will be time-faults for exceeding the time.
Michael Jung said his nation had “luck” on their side today.
“We had a great day, the team riders and also the individuals,” said Michael. “In the end it went how we wished it could and we had the luck on our side this time.
“FischerChipmunk was a little bit surprised at the first water, but looking at the screen every horse was a bit surprised there. Everything else went how I wished and I’m very happy to put a bit of pressure [on Laura] tomorrow.”
Images by Tim Wilkinson
