‘Mission completed’ for Olympic individual showjumping medal contender, as qualifying round proves a challenge
Henrik von Eckermann put the disappointment of incurring four faults in the Olympic showjumping team final at Paris 2024 behind him to notch a clear aboard King Edward in the individual qualifier today (5 August).
The Swedish world number one and his 14-year-old megastar horse are one of the red-hot favourites for an Olympic medal. Henrik reigns as a team world, European and, until last week, Olympic gold medallist and individual world champion, and his hopes of adding individual Olympic gold are still alive.
Henrik’s round was foot-perfect, bar one moment when he ran down a related distance between fences six and seven and ended up very deep, but the scopey King Edward easily got them out of trouble. They stopped the clock on 74.5sec, which is the second quickest of the clear rounds after the first 25 riders jumped. The individual final tomorrow will be run in reverse order, so the fastest clear today will jump last of the 30 combinations who go through from today’s qualifier.
“It was exciting. I mean, I was very delighted in the end that it said clear round on the scoreboard, so that’s mission completed for today,” said Henrik, who went on to explain his slight mistake between six and seven. “I walked it as a nice four for my horse as he has a big stride, but he jumped very backwards over the plank at six so I had to change my mind and go down there on five.”
Mexico’s Andres Azcarraga and Contendros 2 were the first to jump clear, while Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz are the fastest of the clear rounds at the first break, stopping the clock on 73.35sec.
“He jumped great and still had a lot of energy,” said Shane of the 11-year-old. “The big thing was that I wanted to be quick enough if that if I did knock one, I’d have still a chance to qualify for tomorrow. But now I don’t need to worry about that and I can take a deep breath.”
New team silver medallist for the USA Karl Cook and Caracole De La Roque were lucky in a couple of places, rattling poles, but they ultimately jumped a clear round in 76.97sec, the sixth fastest so far in the Olympic showjumping.
“It felt really good, she feels like she has more energy today than she had in the team competition – stronger and more powerful, which is a great thing,” said Karl. “I messed up a line across the middle where I added at stride – that was my fault, I just overcooked it. But thankfully, she took care of me and she was awesome.”
Tokyo individual bronze medallist Maikel van der Vleuten picked up four faults coming out of the treble at fence 10 with Beauville, but he clocked the fastest time of the qualifier so far, completing his round in 70.94sec.
“I’m happy but it was unlucky at the same time,” commented Maikel. “The way my house jumped was fantastic and he didn’t deserve that fault, but that happens in our spot and I hope it will be enough for the top 30 for tomorrow.”
Olivier Perreau, who became a team bronze medallist for France on Friday jumped a lovely round but incurred four faults at the final fence aboard Dorai D’Aigully.
The first of the British representatives, riders, Harry Charles and Romeo 88, jumped an immaculate clear round.
After the first 25 riders, eight have jumped clear, which means it looks unlikely many riders who have picked up four faults will make it through to the individual final tomorrow.
Two riders in the first block opted to retire on course. These were Lithuania’s Andrius Petrovas (Linkolns) and Japan’s Eiken Sato (Conthargo-Blue).
There are options throughout this track, designed by Santiago Varela and Gregory Bodo, where riders can opt to go on more forward distances or be more cautious. Obviously the fastest 30 riders with the fewest amount of faults will progress to the final, but riding quickly around this 1.60-1.65m track opens many horses and riders up to making mistakes.
Henrik von Eckermann said he had “a bit of a debate” with Santiago Varela about today’s track.
“I said I thought this course looked a bit easier than the first day, but he said it was somewhere in between the first and the second [the two rounds of team competition], so we’ll see who’s right when the scoreboard is finished.”
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