THERE was a deja vu feel about the thrills and spills drama surrounding the first show jumping qualifier at the Deodoro Olympic Equestrian Centre.

Just as Pierre Michelet’s cross-country course rewrote last week’s eventing results, the same could be said about Guilherme Jorge’s course today, which produced 24 clear rounds and two disqualifications from the 75 starters.

Irish hopes were pinned on Greg Broderick and the Irish-bred MHS Going Global, drawn 39th to go.

By his round, at just over the half-way point, the bogey fences had already proven to be the water jump and the Musical Instruments combination, with both fences accounting for the bulk of the day’s refusals.

MHS Going Global was clear right up to the Musical Instruments double, the second last challenge on the course.

Then he rubbed the back pole off the first square oxer with “the slightest touch”, according to Broderick, then knocked the second part of the problematic combination.

The horse feels 100%, his warm-up was fantastic, he just felt like he couldn't knock a fence

Speaking to The Irish Field afterwards, Broderick said: “That was probably as good a round as I’ve felt him jump since he’s moved up to 1.60m level. The horse feels 100%, his warm-up was fantastic, he just felt like he couldn't knock a fence in the ring.

“We turned back to that last double and he just took a little look at it, sort of backed off and we just got a bit of dead jump into the double. He just clipped the back rail and it left him a long way off the second part, where he just trailed a leg in it.”

“If something went badly wrong in there, if we had a bad distance or the horse jumped badly, then you have to deal with two fences down but when the horse has jumped so well and feels so fantastic, then it’s very frustrating. He’s as good as any horse in this competition,” added the Thurles rider, who was disappointed with the result, not with the 10-year-old.

He is clearly in fighting form for the next stage, Tuesday’s second individual qualifier, saying: “Now I have to wait. I’m sure he’ll be in the top 60 [today] but we’re definitely going to have to jump a clear round on Tuesday. I know that it’s not that the horse is jumping poorly, that we’ll just be scraping in on Tuesday. There’s a couple of clear rounds in the horse without a doubt; we just have to get stuck in and make it happen.”

There’s no excuses, the horse is good enough to jump clear

“There’s no excuses, the horse is good enough to jump clear,” he repeated.

‘Junior’ and Broderick finished in equal 53rd place, together with seven other combinations.

Some 24 riders had clear rounds, including reigning Olympic champion Steve Guerdat (SUI) with his London winning horse Nino Des Buissonnets and the 2008 Olympic individual gold medallist Eric Lamaze, now riding Fine Lady 5.

Also jumping clear with the Swedish-bred Fibonacci was Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum who received an 11th hour call-up after Marcus Ehning’s Cornado was ruled out this morning.

Another late addition, this time to the French team, was Phillipe Rozier who was another to record a clear with the stallion Rahotep De Toscane, by Quidam De Revel. The French show jumping team has not enjoyed the best run at these Games so far, with Simon Delestre already having to withdraw his injured ride, Ryan Des Layettes.

Further drama was added today at the Colonial De Paraty fence, designed to represent colonial architecture, where Penelope Leprevost was jumped off from the strongly-fancied Flora De Mariposa.

DISQUALIFICATION

Adding to an eventful day was the later disqualification by the Ground Jury of two riders; Jur Vrieling (NED), who was booed by the crowd and later disqualified for overuse of the whip when Zirocco Blue refused twice. Belgian rider Nicola Philippaerts (BEL) was disqualified for overuse of his spurs when Zilverstar T was another to refuse at the Musical Instruments bogey double.

Jur Vrieling was booed by the crowd and later disqualified

Somewhat bizarrely, while now ruled out of the running for the individual competition, Vrieling can still continue to jump for the Dutch team when the second qualifier gets underway on Tuesday.

Coincidentally, Carlo 273, ridden by Spanish rider Sergio Alvarez Moya jumped clear today, while his former pilot, Nick Skelton faulted at the final fence with his London Olympics horse Big Star. John Whitaker was the only member of the British team to jump a clear round today with Ornellaia.

And while there are no official team results from today’s individual qualifier, both Germany, already tipped for a gold medal, and Brazil, trained by US guru George Morris, were today’s outstanding teams.

NEXT COMPETITION

The competition continues on Tuesday when all team riders, plus the top 60 individuals from today’s opening round, will jump again. From there, the top 45 individuals advance to Wednesday, when both the team medals and the top 35 for Friday’s individual final will be decided.

For Friday’s final, the finalists start again on a zero score, so there is clearly a long way to go before the three individual medals are decided.

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