Equestrian: Goodin misses final cut

Three dropped rails in the last two combinations cost Bruce Goodin dearly as he missed the final cut at the Olympics Games showjumping on Sunday.

Goodin and Lenaro made four mistakes on the difficult Horsley Park arena to finish joint 33rd with 16 penalties.

Winner of the gold medal was Jeroen Dubbeldam of the Netherlands, riding Sjiem, the rider who had been tied with Goodin for the lead after the first qualifying round earlier in the week.

Goodin said his main goal at the Olympics had been to be the first New Zealander to reach the final cut in the showjumping, and to not achieve it was very disappointing.

Hopes of a top 20 result, and maybe even a medal, for Goodin and Lenaro had been boosted in the first qualifying round with Lenaro leaping to a clear round just two seconds over time.

He made today's top 45 after eight and 12 faults in the second and third qualifiers.

The course, sprinkled with jumps designed after Australian icons like the Opera House, Bondi Beach and the Harbour bridge, was big and technical.

Lenaro began his round very well, comfortably clearing the first eight fences, but four rails down in the last third of the course cost Goodin a place in the final.

Goodin said Lenaro had been jumping fantastically, but the line of jumps near the end was always going to be technically difficult.

``It's not huge huge, probably in height it's no bigger than the other day, but it's very tricky. Tricky is probably not suited to my horse as much as scope and power.''

He only just missed reaching the showjumping final when 31 riders, instead of 20, were included in the second session because so many in the field were tied on 12 faults.

Goodin will now return to his Belgium base, while Lenaro will be returned to his usual rider Norway's Princess Martha Louise, with whom Goodin is romantically linked.

She was again at Horsley Park to watch Goodin ride today - sporting a New Zealand team shirt - while Goodin was later handed a pure wool jumper by a Norwegian businessman who sent it to Australia and asked that it be given to him.

Goodin said he has another couple of horses coming along, but will need to find another established ride for the world championships in two years and the Olympics in 2004.

``For sure, Athens. I want to be there and I want to be doing better than what I've done here.''

Dubbeldam won the gold medal after riding clear in a three-horse jump-off to decide the medals.

He was the only one of the trio not to knock a rail. The silver medal went to his team-mate Albert Voorn on Lando, while Saudi Arabia's Khaled Al Eid riding Khashm Al Aan won bronze.

There had earlier been a shock elimination in the final round when Brazilian Rodrigo Pessoa, regarded as the finest showjumper in the world, had a round to forget.

Leading and last to ride in the final, a clear round would have won him gold.

Instead his champion horse Baloubet de Rou knocked the first rail, and then refused to jump the eighth fence three times, an automatic elimination.

Kaikohe-born Samantha McIntosh also missed the final cut, after she picked up 17 faults on Royal Discovery to finish 39th.

McIntosh, who has changed nationalities to ride for Bulgaria at the urging of her German sponsor, said her horse had been a little spooked by the swirling winds.

McIntosh, 25 yesterday, has been lost to New Zealand showjumping because Olympics rules allow only one change of nationality.

- NZPA