Equestrian: Tompkins ready for showjumping showdown

1.00pm - By KEVIN NORQUAY

ATHENS - Olympic Games rookie Heelan Tompkins is not losing any sleep as she prepares for her long-shot tilt at a three-day eventing medal.

A clear cross-country round today lifted the 26-year-old Taranaki radio breakfast host into 10th place on 44.0 points, with only the showjumping tomorrow to come.

"Bring it on," the irrepressible Tompkins told reporters, saying the more difficult the showjumping fences were the better for her.

Tompkins, 26, will need a mixture of skill and luck to claim a medal on her beloved Glengarrick, at 18 the oldest horse in the field.

While they are within two fallen rails of a bronze -- a downed rail is a four point penalty -- seven quality combinations block their way to the dias.

It is hard to imagine all of those suffering showjumping horrors, especially as world champion Jean Teulere and classy Britons William Fox-Pitt and Pippa Funnell are among them.

Frenchman Nicolas Touzaint was faultless in the cross-country today to retain his lead on 29.40 from German Bettina Hoy (35.60) and United States eventer Kimberly Severson (36.20).

Teulere is fourth on 38.40 points, Fox-Pitt fifth on 38.60 and Funnell eighth with 42.60.

Tompkins said she would sleep easily before her crucial outing in the Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre showjumping ring.

"I'll be nervous when I go out there but if (Glengarrick) takes a rail, he takes a rail," she said.

"If he goes clear he goes clear, if he takes five rails ... well, he owes me nothing, I think he's fabulous.

"Some horses are going to be tired tomorrow, some horses are going to be fresh, both ways can play against you and for you."

New Zealand risks missing an eventing medal for the first time in 20 years, unless their fortunes turn markedly in the showjumping.

A tumble by Andrew Nicholson took the steam out of a valiant New Zealand cross-country effort, as three of their first four riders went clear.

Only 1996 Olympic champion Blyth Tait collected penalties, a scant 1.2 for being three seconds outside the allotted nine minutes 46 seconds on Ready Teddy.

Daniel Jocelyn on Silence, Tompkins and Matthew Grayling on Revo were flawless, with Grayling climbing to 17th.

But Nicholson, who had posted the third-best New Zealand score in the dressage, tumbled at the 31st of 34 fences when another clear round seemed certain.

He remounted Fenicio and finished, his 65 jumping penalties and 7.20 time penalties plunging him to 64th of the 71 remaining in the field.

Bleeding from his nose and upper lip, Nicholson told reporters he would not normally have fallen in that situation.

"Normally I would be all right, but I either shoved my (riding) stick in my face, or his head bumped me in the face," he said.

"It just put me off balance, and off the side I came. I shouldn't have come off."

Sixth after the dressage, New Zealand were still sixth after all the effort they put into the cross-country.

France took the team lead on 113.40 points, followed by Germany (119.60), Britain (125.60), the United States (128.40), Australia (129.40), and New Zealand 156.20.

Team showjumping will follow a vet check, with the top 25 riders jumping for the individual gold under floodlights in the evening.

Each country can start only three riders in the top 25 jump off.

- NZPA