ALTHOUGH he missed out on the glory of standing on the gold podium in Athens after the debacle over Bettina Hoy’s score in the final of the Olympic three-day-event contest, Leslie Law, the new Olympic champion, and the silver medal-winning Great Britain team will receive their new medals in a ceremony to be arranged in England by the British Olympic Association (BOA).
“We haven’t heard where yet but we’re sending the bronze medals back to Athens and the BOA will then arrange a new ceremony,” Yogi Breisner, the team manager, said, speaking from the Thirlestane Horse Trials in Scotland, where, on Saturday, he was told of Britain’s upgraded medals after the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to accept the joint appeal of France, Great Britain and the United States on the result of the competition.
Although delighted at the outcome — which includes a richly deserved individual bronze medal for Pippa Funnell — Breisner remains angry at the management of the whole affair. “It should never have come to this. The Ground Jury’s decision should have been accepted on the night. I’m delighted for Leslie, who has been overdue for an individual medal, but it would have been marvellous to have heard God Save The Queen on Wednesday night rather than the German anthem.”
Law, 39, who was competing in a novice horse trials in Solihull when he heard that he had become Britain’s first Olympic three-day-event champion since Richard Meade in 1972, was barely able to take in the news. “I’m thrilled, relieved, everything all at once,” he said. “I went to Athens looking for a team medal. That was my main job, to be part of the team. An ndividual medal was always going to be a long shot.”
But his brilliant grey gelding, Shear L’Eau, owned by Shearwater Insurance Syndicate, scarcely put a foot wrong from the start of the contest, claiming the gold with two faultless showjumping performances.
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Law’s popularity in the team, of which he has been a member since Sydney in 2000, was reflected in Funnell’s response to the news of the corrected result. “I’m thrilled,” she said. “It’s wonderful for Leslie.”
The German Equestrian Federation issued a terse statement after the Court for Arbitration in Sport verdict, saying that they “deeply regret” the decision to deprive the team and Hoy of the two golds: “Sportswise they earned their medals — and that is what will be remembered in history”.
For Hoy, whose one silly mistake caused such mayhem, there was universal sympathy. She learnt she had lost her medals from the pilot of the Lufthansa aeroplane on which she was flying back to Germany.
Nick Skelton, the British showjumper who has come to Athens with only the gold medal in mind, made a superb start to his campaign when he and John Hales’s Arko were clear, finishing on one time fault, in the opening individual qualifying round yesterday. Robert Smith, the other Briton in the event, is also in contention after four faults on Mr Springfield.
Although there are four more gruelling rounds — the final is on Friday — Skelton was thrilled to have come through this first round so well.