The team riders jumped in the afternoon at the beginning of the jumping session for the Top 25. The team riders in the Top 25 jumped according to their placing (Lucy Jackson (NZ) in 24^th place, Kenki Sato (JPN) in 21^st place, Jonathan Paget (NZL) in 17^th place and Clarke Johnstone (NZL) in 8^th place) so it was a while before the final team placings were confirmed

 

 

 

As on cross country day, things started well for Australia. The first Japanese combination of Mavrick du Granit and Atsushi Negishi had three rails down to give Australia an 8 point lead when Bill Levett and One Two Many NJ jumped a good round to go clear.

 

 

Brook Staples and Ever So Clever III were next in and were jumping well until disaster struck at the first part of the second last fence which they demolished with a refusal. Once the fence was rebuilt, they represented to have a rail at the same fence then again ploughed through the second part of the combination, seemingly catching the fence wing between Brook’s stirrup and the horse. The wing was dragged down and, once the ground jury replayed the video, it became clear that Brook had not kept the red flags on his right side due to the horse’s erratic jump through the fence and so was eliminated although this was not announced until later.  Ever So Clever III sustained a small leg wound which required veterinary attention but which hopefully will quickly heal.

 

 

Catherine Burrell went into the ring straight after Brook but she kept her head and had a good clear round on Urzan. This really is a lovely horse and despite the fact that it may not have been the best event for the Australian team, Catherine performed pretty well at her first team appearance and she will be heading back to Australia later in the year to get married.

 

The second rider for Japan, Takeaki Tsuchiya riding Jackabee had a reasonably good round with only one rail and two time faults so Australia’s position (bearing in mind that it had not been announced that Brook had been disqualified) was looking decidedly shaky unless the last rider for Japan, Kenki Sato, had a similar disaster to Brook.

 

 

 

 

Kenki is a Buddhist monk and he certainly had a serene expression as he jumped around the course, piloting his lovely bay gelding, Chippieh to 16^th place overall with just a four fault round. He was very emotional as he left the ring and the Japanese team were obviously delighted with their well deserved qualification. Unlike Australia, who can still qualify through individual rankings, Japan did not have this luxury and so they have managed to pull off their qualification for London 2012 at their last chance.

 

As the competition progressed, the New Zealanders had some good performances to keep their lead. Jonathan Paget had one rail and two time faults while Lucy Jackson and Clarke Johnstone had one rail each securing the team win and putting Clarke into 7^th place individually.

 

So unfortunately the Australian team failed to finish with three riders as Lucinda was eliminated on the cross country and Brook in the show jumping, although Japan would have won on their score of 245.9 to Australia’s 255.9 anyway. New Zealand won the team competition on 185.8 and proved yet again that they are one of the teams to watch leading up to London 2012

 

Australia will now aim for London 2012 qualification through the FEI individual rankings. With a minimum of 20 individual places still available, athletes will be selected from the FEI Global Rider Rankings. The Global rider rankings are based on results from CCI3*, CIC3* and CCI4* events from March 2011 – March 2012.If 3 or more Australian riders qualify, Australia can form a composite team. As the order of priority of the selection of the composite teams will be based on the combined highest 5 placings on the ranking list of 1 March 2012, this means that we will not have qualification confirmed until this date, however it is currently looking very good.

 

In the CCI*** individual competition at the Fidelity Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials Piggy French riding DHI Topper W held her lead despite one rail down.  Following the cross country Piggy was in first and second place and Pippa Funnell was in third but sadly both Pippa and Piggy had to withdraw a horse each before showjumping.

 

This left Tiana Coudray from the USA, who rode a beautiful clear showjumping round to take second place on Ringwood Magister and Bettina Hoy, who admitted to having had a difficult time recently since her separation from Andrew, who also jumped clear for a well deserved third place.

 

Full results are on the Results Page of the website and photos from all days at the event can be found on the Photo Gallery