Equestrian: No medals? No worries, says riding chief

By KEVIN NORQUAY in Athens

There's no need to panic at the lack of New Zealand medals in equestrian sports at these Olympics, says the chief executive of the sport's national body.

Equestrian has been a reliable source of medals for New Zealand since 1984.

Mark Todd won gold in Los Angeles that year and New Zealand have won a medal in eventing at every Games since, peaking with three at Atlanta in 1996.

This time the cupboard was bare, with eventer Heelan Tompkins seventh, the eventing team fifth, and showjumper Daniel Meech 13th.

But Equestrian Sports New Zealand's Justine Kidd said the results should be seen in perspective.

"It is a natural reaction for the New Zealand public to say 'They always deliver a medal and they haven't, so what's wrong', but in reality the difference between 10th and delivering a medal is very small.

"I'm thrilled with the performances, I'm thrilled with the spirit that all our riders competed in, the team environment has been fantastic.

"We're really excited about the eventing result - two first-time Olympians finishing in the top 20, and the three reserve riders we named are young and have great horses, so we have a strong line of riders and horses coming through.

"You always go in hoping for that medal, but the finishes we had have been fantastic, we are just like 'bring on Aachen 2006 World Games'."

Tompkins, 26, climbed from 13th in the dressage to 10th after the cross-country, then capped her Games off by dropping just two rails in two rounds of pressured showjumping.

She was two fallen rails out of gold, and one from bronze.

Matthew Grayling finished 15th on Revo with 63.20 points, two-time world champion Blyth Tait climbed from 54th after the dressage to 18th, while Daniel Jocelyn and Andrew Nicholson were not among the top 25 riders.

Meech, 30, was the surprise package of the Games, going into the final showjumping round lying third, one point behind co-leaders Jessica Kuerten of Ireland and Briton Nick Skelton.

But when he and Diagonal returned for a tilt at a medal in the evening, the bounce had gone out of his 10-year-old stallion. Three fences went down, a time penalty was added, and they slipped from third to 13th.

Had Diagonal jumped clear, Meech would have won the gold medal. One rail down, he would have had the silver. Two, and he was fifth. His world ranking before the Olympics was 89th.

Beset by a troubled build-up and hit harder by the judges than she expected, Louisa Hill finished 49th of 52 in the dressage. Even a personal best would not have put her and Gabana through to the next round.

Kidd believes eventing has improved on the last World Games and the Sydney Olympics, where Todd gained a bronze.

"Obviously we're all here for a medal, but I am really happy with the performance of eventing, it is an improvement," she said.

New Zealand were undone in Athens by a relatively easy cross-country course that meant dressage played a bigger role in the outcome than usual.

Tait and Ready Teddy had a poor dressage score, as did Jocelyn and Nicholson.

New Zealand did appreciate that eventing was changing, Kidd said. But it was not possible to react to those changes overnight because eventing horses took years to bring through to Olympic standard.

"All the countries were in the same situation as us, you look at the teams that were selected - they all put strong emphasis on endurance," she said.

In dressage, Equestrian Sports New Zealand was looking to adapt programmes used by Spain and the United States, who have made a huge investment in the sport, basing riders in Europe to learn the tricks of the trade from the very best.

"That has paid huge dividends for them," Kidd said. "We are looking how we can adapt that to New Zealand.

"We have a handful of riders who could be competitive internationally and we are looking at how we can support them so they have the horse power, the training and the experience."

Meech, Bruce Goodin and Grant Cashmore from the showjumping team have all been based in Europe for several years.

Their efforts have seen New Zealand gradually become more competitive at elite level, with Meech now the best-performing New Zealand rider in Olympic history.

"These guys have gone to Europe, based themselves there and worked really hard," Kidd said.

"The personal commitment they have put into it . . . you just can't take away from them.

"Most have them have been there for about 10 years and it is just starting to pay off.

"It's the best result we've ever had in showjumping and it wasn't a fluke result. He [Meech] worked, he prepared, he delivered."

- NZPA