Susan Finnerty

THE Rio 2016 Olympic eventing challenge will go down as a year when records were made. The toughest Olympic cross-country course of the modern era, based on completion statistics compiled by EquiRatings, Deodoro was where the German maestro Michael Jung proved himself, once again, to be the best in the world.

Jung is the only rider to finish on his dressage score at the Olympics and he has done that twice. He returns to Germany with another title and two medals around his neck.

For the Irish team, Padraig McCarthy and the Polish-bred Simon Porloe entered the arena just after the eventual individual silver medalist Astier Nicolas and Piaf De B’Neville (42.00). McCarthy and the 16-year-old, affectionately described by him as a “bumble bee”, set the standard for Irish personal bests at this Olympics with their score of 46.80.

By the end of day one, McCarthy lay in 12th place, one place above his teammate and another Olympic rookie, Clare Abbott, who shared equal 13th place with New Zealand rider Tim Price and his Irish-bred Ringwood Sky Boy (47.00). Part-time maths teacher Clare was competing Cormac McKay’s homebred Euro Prince (McKay was one of several owners to travel to Rio) and was another to score her best dressage score (47.00). This knocked an entire 10.3 penalties off the pair’s score at the 2014 World Equestrian Games.

Jonty Evans and his Boekelo Nations Cup horse Cooley Rorke’s Drift, bred by Co Down’s William McCarrison, raised the bar again on the second day of dressage on Sunday, when the 10-year-old’s impressive canter work started notching up scores of eights to see them finish on 41.20. Ireland stood in bronze medal position at this early stage.

Down to the final 16 and Mark Kyle completed a clean sweep of personal bests when he and Jemilla finished on 50.40.

Ireland (136.60) ended the day in fifth place behind closely-grouped neighbours Germany (122.00) and France (122.20); then Australia (126.40) in bronze medal position and Great Britain (127.70) fourth.

The leaderboard had as many twists and turns as Pierre Michelet’s switchback course the next day when the Palm Tree Question claimed Simon Porloe and Padraig McCarthy, who was fortunate to escape injury when the horse’s hind leg narrowly missed him.

The pair, who had an earlier refusal at the Pan Am steps, were quickly on their feet and reported to be fine, even having a light workout the next day.

With the pressure on the remaining three riders to get around for a team score, Clare Abbott duly delivered with Euro Prince, with the pair recording stops at The Corners Question, a fence flagged since the riders’ course walk as an early bogey fence, and again at the Pan Am steps combination.

Out next, Jonty Evans and Cooley Rorkes Drift rallied to answer every one of Michelet’s questions. Some quick thinking and a circle at the Fishermens Lake took the pair home clear with 22.8 time penalties. Although Evans would later rue those time penalties, which denied him a medal, the end of day leader Christopher Burton, Michael Jung and Astier Nicolas were the only three riders, from 46 finishers, to add nothing to their dressage scores.

Last to go was Mark Kyle, already a veteran of the Athens and London Olympics, with Jemilla and again the Pan Am Steps complex proved to be the Irish team’s nightmare fence, when they had a glance-off at the final element. However, on a day that saw several fancied medal contenders slip out of contention and the American team lose riders, Kyle nursed the young mare home to see Ireland initially finish eighth on the leaderboard.

Aussie film crews clustered round to interview their team (150.30), now in overnight gold medal position, with their Antipodean neighbours, New Zealand (154.80) just over a fence behind, while France (161.00) dropped from silver to bronze medal place.

Reigning gold medal champions Germany also moved down a place to fourth, when only Michael Jung kept a clear scoresheet and they too were reduced to three riders after the elimination of their youngest team member, Julia Krajewski.

An objection by the Brazilian team to a contentious 20 penalties awarded to their final rider Marcio Carvalho Jorge was upheld, resulting in Ireland moving down one place to ninth.

More drama was to follow at Tuesday morning’s horse inspection when the second Irish horse to be inspected, Cooley Rorkes Drift, who had lost a shoe at the Fishermens Lake complex, was sent to the holding box. Much to the relief of the Irish contingent gathered for the re-presentation, he was declared accepted second time around, as were Mighty Nice and The Duke Of Cavan.

Superb clear rounds from Euro Prince and Cooley Rorke’s Drift and two fences down by Jemilla saw Ireland record another top-10 team, after having finished fifth at London, when they rose a place to finish eighth in the morning’s team medal decider. While the Olympic journey then ended for Mark Kyle (individual 33rd) and Clare Abbott (37th), Jonty Evans, who was lying in 16th place overnight, had made the final 25 which jumped again that afternoon to decide the individual places.

France (169.00), with consistently solid results recorded on a squad of much-admired horses, moved back up to the top of the leaderboard to clinch the country’s first team gold since the country’s last win at Athens in 2004.

Coming tantalisingly close to a third team gold in a row, after London and Beijing, was the German team (172.80), still the only medal-winning squad from London to appear on the medal winners podium at this Olympics, while despite Paulank Brockagh and Sam Griffiths’s clear, Australia (175.30) slipped to bronze medal place.

With the highest-placed 25 riders jumping in reverse order, the sizeable Irish contingent in the Deodoro Olympic Equestrian Centre held their breath until Cooley Rorkes Drift and Gloucestershire-based Jonty Evans pulled off another exhibition clear round. Not only did it move the pair up to ninth place in the final standings, but the Courage II-sired gelding was one of only five double clear rounds during Tuesday’s final phase.

And as the final leaderboard slotted into shape after one of the toughest Olympics in recent years, the realisation that Ireland had recorded another individual top-10 result in the toughest Olympic sport hit home and the celebrations began.