IRELAND’S SHANE SWEETNAM and Daniel Coyle missed out on the medal jump-off in Tuesday morning’s Olympic individual jumping final at the Chateau de Versailles.
Cork’s Sweetnam and Derry’s Coyle finished in second and third place overall after brilliant performances in Monday’s qualification round, leaving them second- and third-last in the start list for the final.
With Germany’s Christian Kukuk, Maikel van der Vleuten of the Netherlands, and Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat all jumping clear rounds, both Sweetnam and Coyle knew exactly what was required to join them in the podium decider.
Coyle and his horse Legacy, who have impressed all week in Paris, looked poised to join them as they survived an early wobble to go clear through the opening 11 fences of a challenging final course.
But as they neared the finish, Legacy’s fore leg knocked the first fence in the decisive final line and then lost momentum with poles down at each of the next three jumps for 16 faults before Coyle decided to retire ahead of the final jump.
With all eyes on Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz, they got off to a solid early rhythm but came unstuck with a pole down at the fifth, and with their medal chances gone, saw out the remainder of the course with 12 faults in total to finish in 22nd place overall.
“He tried his best but I’d say the tank was a little bit empty after four big rounds in six days,” Sweetnam said afterwards.
“He got a second wind and finished the course brilliantly, I’m very proud of him and our entire team. He’s done us proud and hopefully we’ll be back again in Los Angeles.”
He added: “The course was the biggest I’ve ever seen and 15 jumps, which I’ve never seen before. The course designer obviously did a great job as there were just three people for the medals which is great sport and exactly what you’d expect in an Olympic final.”
In the jump-off, Kukuk and Checker 47 claimed the Olympic title as the only partnership with a double clear, edging Guerdat and Dynamix de Belheme into silver and van der Vleuten and Beauville Z into bronze.
Tough tough sport but underwhelming from the boys there
Least we can make history later with 4th gold first time ever
Disapointing but not surprised horse’s must be so tired
@Square: all the other horses had to jump the same amount square. One canna blame tiredness on losing out
@WqM9AAv3: yep disapointing we win everywhere just not at the olympics bar cian o connor ( )
I know almost nothing about equestrian sport but from afar, it looks like an area of pretty dismal underperformance. I’m reading that in show jumping we’ve 2 riders in the top 10 and 13 in top 100. Yet they are no where near medals at the Olympics.
@Michael Corkery: btw, that’s world rankings where we’ve more horses/riders in top100 than anywhere else . Our 3 individual final performance s= 22nd, retired in final, didn’t make final. That seems very poor
@Michael Corkery: obviously it’s Jackman’s fault with his recent involvement !!
@Brendan Griffin: he’ll have some explaining to do on the pod . lol
Very tough course. All set at the maximum. Super tricky and spooky too. #1 in the world couldn’t handle it! Only an Olympic track would have been set up to that degree of difficulty. Big scores totted up by best in the world. Sez it all that only 3 got around.