Equestrian: Dropped rail costly for Tompkins

A light touch by her horse, Glengarrick, that dropped a rail, cost New Zealand's Heelan Tompkins a bronze medal after the showjumping phase of the eventing competition at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany today.

With the 56-strong field jumping in reverse order, Tompkins looked to be cruising over the fences when the 20-year-old black gelding's trailing leg slightly brushed a rail, causing it to topple.

In a tight leaderboard where only two points separated third to sixth placings, the rail dropped Taranaki's Tompkins to seventh place overall after she came into the final phase in fifth place overnight.

"That little touch was so annoying but Glengarrick was awesome and he jumped really well," Tompkins said.

"We go on about making your own luck but the team didn't have the luck on their side this time," New Zealand team manager Blyth Tait said.

"Right down to the wire in the showjumping and Glengarrick's toe on the back rail is just rotten luck."

The New Zealand team of Tompkins, Joe Meyer, Caroline Powell and Andrew Nicholson had a seesawing battle with Sweden in today's showjumping but could not improve on their overnight sixth placing to finish 3.5 points behind the Swedes.

Powell and her grey gelding Lenamore finished their competition in style with an impressive clear jumping round today to keep New Zealand on track for a move up the table.

But with Meyer dropping three rails and Nicholson one, New Zealand's hopes of finishing higher than fifth disappeared.

A fifth place finish would have meant automatic qualification for the 2008 Olympic Games but there still other avenues left for New Zealand to qualify.

Tait felt the nucleus of an Olympic team is in place and said with two years still to go there was every confidence New Zealand eventing was heading in the right direction to once again be a dominant international force.

Results:

Zara Phillips and Toy Town (Great Britain) 46.70 points 1, Clayton Fredericks and Been Along Time (Australia) 48.80 2, Amy Tryon and Poggio 50.70 3, HEELEN TOMPKINS and GLENGARRICK (NEW ZEALAND) 53.80 7, ANDREW NICHOLSON and LORD KILLINGHURST (NEW ZEALAND) 79.60 23, CAROLINE POWELL and LENAMORE (NEW ZEALAND) 88.30 26, JOE MEYER and SNIP 170.80 51.

Individual New Zealand riders Donna Smith on Call Me Clifton and Alex de Luca Oliveira on Clifton Checkers retired during yesterday's cross-country.

Teams:

Germany 156 1, Great Britain 180 2, Australia 197.30 3, US 198.10 4, Sweden 218.20 5, NEW ZEALAND 221.70 6, France 312.90 7, Netherlands 358 8, Ireland 361.80 9, Austria 1190 10.

- NZPA