Equestrian: End of a golden era for outstanding achiever

By DAVID LEGGAT

And then there was one.

For over a decade Mark Todd, Blyth Tait and Andrew Nicholson have been the core of New Zealand's outstanding three-day eventing team.

Olympic and world championship medals, along with a host of stellar international titles, came through their deeds.

Double Olympic champion Todd packed it in after the Sydney Games four years ago. Now Tait, without actually committing himself in so many words, is heading in other equine directions, leaving England-based Nicholson as the last man standing from a golden era for New Zealand in the sport.

Tait, who won the Atlanta Games gold on Ready Teddy and two world titles, ended his partnership with the horse by finishing 18th in the individual competition in Athens this week.

They are the only horse and rider combination to have contested three straight Olympics.

But there were no tears at the end of the relationship. A bond had been formed, it had been a hugely successful partnership, but that was that. Time to move on.

"I've got a lot of memories," Tait said. "He's had a long career.

"I'm satisfied that I've had a great time and I'm not worried it had to stop at some stage."

As for whether this is the end of the road as a rider in big international events, Tait boxed clever. Never say never was the gist of his thoughts.

He certainly won't be at the World Games in two years. Beijing in 2008? Almost certainly not. But if he got hold of a good horse between now and then? "Maybe."

He's had 15 years at the top. And there's no better place than the Olympic arena to call it a day.

Yet equestrian is not like many other sports where the advance of time dims physical skills, where carrying on too long is plain dopey.

Tait could carry on. It's more a case of deciding that he's achieved just about everything he's wanted to.

He is on the board of New Zealand Eventing; is working on a high performance role; is looking to secure more New Zealand horses for New Zealand riders, as many are sold off overseas; and intends dabbling in coaching. So if this was the end he wouldn't be entirely lost to the sport.

At the same time another senior cog in the sport stepped away, the emergence of Heelan Tompkins, who was New Zealand's best performer in Athens, finishing eighth aboard 18-year-old Glengarrick, was a healthy sign for the future.

* Some sports just don't belong at the Olympics. Tennis is one. It simply doesn't fit.

You take highly paid, often precocious, immature sports people out of their year-long cocoon on the world circuits and drop them into a multi-sport environment and the mix doesn't work.

There's no buzz about the event. It takes place without anyone really seeming to notice or care.

Tennis was reintroduced to the Olympics in 1988 after a 64-year hiatus by former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

The autocratic old Spaniard also wanted golf to be on the schedule. Now that really would have been silly.

Picture Tiger Woods and co sitting down to their cornflakes alongside Iraqi boxers, Swedish longjumpers and Japanese gymnasts. I don't think so.

Even allowing for the fact the word "amateur" doesn't belong in large part to the Games, having millionaire golfers at the Olympic table would be one nonsensical step too far.

The tennis players might enjoy the break from the weekly grind, but next week it's back to business. They'll be off to the Pilot Pen tournament in Connecticut or the Waterhouse Cup in Long Island, New York, without a backward glance.

They have their circuits. They shouldn't be here.