Olympics: Nicholson furious with eventing officials

Andrew Nicholson thought the London Olympics was his time, his moment to truly come out of the shadow of Mark Todd and Blyth Tait.

That will have to wait another four years after he made a handful of costly errors in his dressage test that left him with too much of a gap on the leaders to make up. His score of 45.20 penalties left him in 21st place after the dressage phase of the three-day event, well behind leader Yoshiaki Oiwa on 38.10. Todd was third on 39.10 penalties.

Nicholson was furious afterwards. Not with himself or mount Nereo but with organisers after they called a 10-minute weather break because of lightening and thunder eight minutes before he was due into the Greenwich Park arena.

The early riders competed in bright sunshine and conditions cleared soon after Nicholson's ride. The perfect storm, you could say, and it continues Nicholson's run of drama at the Olympics that has seen retirements, elimination and in 1992 his horse dropped nine rails which cost New Zealand team gold.

Preparing horses to enter the arena is a precise business and delays are almost unheard of.

"There should have been no hold, no hold at all," he said. "I've been in the rain, I've been in the lightning, I've been in the thunder and nobody held anything then.

"I thought Nereo was very good. I was just disgusted with the organisation. They just hold the competition when myself and the Swedish boy were ready to go in.

"With dressage, we're given a time, we work it to the minute. It may sound a bit pathetic, but we do, we try and judge our buildup to the minute.

"You're prepping the horse up, getting stronger and stronger, more energy, and then suddenly you're told to stop for 10 minutes. What do you do? Do you let the horse down so he thinks he's finished work, or do you carry on pressurising him for 10 more minutes, when you know you then can't have him right in the arena? He wasn't sure whether it was just another training session or not.

"I question the decision. Why didn't they stop the British rider? When you're soaked through for 10 minutes, all you do is get slippery in your saddle."

British rider Katrina Cook copped the worst of the weather but produced a solid round of 42 penalty points. It was after her ride that the grand jury deemed it too dangerous to continue.

The delay was even more difficult on Swedish rider Niklas Lindback, who had entered the arena only to be told to return to the holding area. He was in tears after picking up a score of 45.20.

Nicholson didn't think the situation was terminal for him but he will become vitally important in the team's event where the top three riders from each country count. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind at the Olympics.