Great Britain claimed Jumping team gold in fine style today at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Versailles (FRA) with spectacular performances from Ben Maher/Dallas Vegas Batilly, Harry Charles/Romeo 88 and Scott Brash/Jefferson. It was a clean, crisp result for the new Olympic champions, without a single fence down and counting only two time faults to seal it in the Team Final. Team USA had to settle for silver medal spot with a final scoreline of just four faults, and in the battle for bronze it was France that clinched it thanks to quicker combined times for their three combinations who edged the Dutch off the podium by the narrowest of margins – 0.57 seconds – when both sides completed with seven faults on the board.
This was Britain’s third team title in the history of Jumping at the Games. The first was recorded by Wilfred White/Nizefela, Douglas Stewart/Aherlow and Harry Llewellyn/Foxhunter in Helsinki in 1952, and there was a very long wait before they did it again on home ground in London 2012. Both Maher and Brash were young guns in their 20’s when competing in that four-man side 12 years ago alongside Harry Charles’ father Peter, and Nick Skelton. Today’s result resonated with that, although this time around Maher and Brash were the veterans while 25-year-old Charles was the relative rookie.
Convincing
The British looked convincing from the outset, Maher and Dallas Vegas Batilly finishing just shy of the time-allowed of 79 seconds for a single time fault, while Charles and Rome 88 were crystal clear. By the time Brash and Jefferson entered the ring as anchors and the very last to go, the Americans were counting only four faults for Laura Kraut’s mistake at the first element of the triple combination because both Karl Cook with Caracole de la Roque and Ward and Ilex had been foot-perfect.
The pressure was at boiling point as Brash set off with everything hanging in the balance. A fence down and gold would go to the USA, and two down would drop his country right out of contention. But in the years since that historic London victory at the age of 26, the Scottish-born rider has become a master of his art with a reputation for nerves of steel. And as he and Jefferson galloped through the finish with just a single time penalty popping up on the scoreboard it was time for big British celebrations.
Asked about winning the second Olympic team gold medal of his sparkling career, Brash said:
“A gold medal doesn't get old! It's incredible, obviously, to win in London in front of our home crowd, which was one of the best days of my life, but here is right up there! I mean what an unbelievable setting, what a beautiful venue for our sport and facilities for the horses were incredible!”
And asked what it was like to enter that cauldron of tension to secure that gold, he replied, “you’ve got to stay focused on your horse, it’s a partnership, you really need to know your horse inside out to be able to jump that course, it's technical, it's big, you’re jumping at the highest level and there's questions all around that course. So you really need to know your horse inside out and ride the best way possible for them to jump clear. You stay focused and then try and execute your plan and that's what I tried to do, and thankfully it paid off!”, he explained.
Underestimated
Maher, who on Monday begins the defence of the individual Olympic title he won in Tokyo three years ago, said he may have underestimated the time it would take to get around today’s track, “but we left the jumps up and gave the team a great start!”, he pointed out. “We’re talking about 0.3 of a second over the time - I could probably just have turned back shorter after the double of Liverpools (4ab) and taken a bit of a risk, but my horse is younger and our team in a good position anyway”, he explained.
He said he has a lot of faith in Dallas Vegas Batilly. “She’s been very consistent and won already some really good Grand Prix all over the world. We did the championship indoors back in April to give us some experience. There were some question marks over my change of horse last-minute but I’m in a very fortunate position, she is the more experienced horse in the stable at the moment and I just felt that she was really on form and ready at the right time, and she's certainly shown that today!”, he said.
Charles said he initially thought today’s course was not too tough, “but that's how good these course builders are - it rode completely differently to how it walked! It's probably much more difficult than yesterday but suited my horse better with striding in between the jumps. He likes to jump from a collected canter rather than an open one so I could get to most of the jumps in a holding stride which was a big benefit. And I wasn't really too concerned with the time allowed. He was really quick yesterday, so I thought if I just do my normal pace I should be inside and just was. So I was pretty happy about that”, he said.