Sunday, August 17, 2008

Inside Olympic Show Jumping.


From Vivian Garner with Laura Kraut and Cedric.
5"59 PM Hong Kong Time
Hi everyone,
The sun is setting over the venue in Hong Kong and it is a warm but lovely evening. The riders are walking the course. The jumps are higher and much more interesting to look at than the first night. Dragons, pagodas, temple doors and a large water jump. The individual riders go first and then the teams begin. The US will be the last team to compete. Beezie goes 76th and last of the evening. Mclain will start off for the US followed by Laura and Will. It is going to be.a very long evening. See attached photo. More to come..........V

8:36 PM Hong Kong Time
The non-team riders finished with no clear rounds. Denis Lynch and Jos Lansink both had one time fault and are in a good position to qualify for the individual medal round. They have divided the teams into two groups for some reason. The bottom half of them are finished and the results are surprising. Sweden is in the lead with 30 points followed by Mexico with 40 and Germany with 52. The course has had only one clear round-Ninja and Rolf Bengtsson from Sweden. The water jump line and the triple have taken their toll. We have an intermission, and then the rest of the riders compete. Talk to you in about 2 hours!
V

10:23 PM Hong Kong
End of night two
The end of the night was very surprising. Authentic did not want to go into the corner and stopped at the in of the triple. Beezie circled and he had it down but finished the rest of the course in his usual great form. So the US is now tied with the Swiss with 12 points each. Mclain is double clear along with Eric Lamaze from Canada in the hunt for the gold! What a night.
My heart is still beating like I'm the one who jumped the course. Laura is thrilled with Cedric, and thanks all of you for the well wishes. Good night from Hong Kong.
Viviane out!