Great Britain’s showjumping team, the Olympic and European champions, crashed out of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy yesterday after finishing 18th of the 31 teams in the first round of the Nations Cup event. The disappointing performance means they now have only the European Championships next year from which to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Scott Brash, the world No 1, is 36th after incurring four faults on Hello Sanctos. He is the only Briton to qualify for the next round of the individual event. Spencer Roe on Wonder Why, acquitted himself well at his first championships with eight faults but the more experienced Michael Whitaker, on Viking, and Joe Clee, on Utamaro d’Ecaussines, both had 12 faults.
“It’s disappointing, of course, but it happens and we need to deal with the facts and then look at what we need to do,” Rob Hoekstra, the team manager, said.
Holland are in the gold medal position but less than the cost of one mistake in today’s second round separates them from the United States and Germany in second and third respectively. The top ten teams compete today and the 30 highest-placed of the 50 riders in action continue to the individual competition on Saturday.
William Fox-Pitt, who came within a showjumping pole of becoming three-day event world champion on Sunday, attempts a record seventh win in the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, which start today near Stamford, Lincolnshire. He has withdrawn Parklane Hawk, his 2011 winner, but has an in-form contender in Bay My Hero, on whom he won Lexington in April.
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The event has a 64-strong field that includes Andrew Nicholson, of New Zealand, on Avebury, winners in the past two years. Success last year came after his compatriot Jock Paget, who competes again today, had his win disqualified when his horse Clifton Promise failed a doping test.