August 8, 2016 
Australia’s up. France is down. And Britain is out. It’s been a dramatic day in on the cross country course at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janerio.
Australia takes over the team and individual lead
Three clear rounds put the Aussies atop the Team leaderboard on 150.30 penalties. Christopher Burton posted one of the day’s only double clear rounds while Sam Griffiths and Stuart Tinney were just over the time allowed, collecting 6.80 and 2.80 penalties respectively.
Tinney was delighted with his 18-year-old partner, Pluto Mio.
“He felt fantastic the whole way round. He didn’t put a foot wrong,” said the 2000 Olympic individual gold medalist.”
Meanwhile, yesterday’s team leader fell to a distant fourth with Sandra Auffarth and Ingrid Klimke each collected jumping penalties. They sit on 172.80 penalties going into tomorrow’s show jumping round.
“It was very, very tough,” said Klimke. “And I must say it was very tough for the horse’s to ride mentally because they didn’t have much time to recover. It was just 1, 2, 3…It was always one fence to recover, next question.”
New Zealand currently sits in second on 154.80. France is third on 161.00 thanks in large part to Nicolas Astier, who posted the first double clear of the day.
His horse may be green, but his medal prospects are golden
Burton also jumped to the top of the individual leaderboard with a fluid cross-country trip aboard Santano II. It was the biggest test yet for the nine-year-old Hannoverian gelding.
“Team orders were for me to take the long route at fence 6 because for a 4* horse that’s a difficult fence. For a first time 4* it’s a very difficult fence. So we took the long route there, but he’s so fast I couldn’t believe it. For a horse with very little blood in his breeding he is a rocket, so I am delighted at this stage, couldn’t be happier,” said Burton.
“He started out like the Pre-Novice horse that he is, but he finished like a 4* horse.”
Michael Jung moves into medal contention
William Fox-Pitt’s Olympic dream was dashed following a run out on course. But that of defending Olympic champion Michael Jung (GER) is alive and well.
Moving up from fifth to second, with just 3.3 penalties between them and the lead, Jung and Sam FBW are well within striking distance for the individual gold. Despite a tense start in cross country:
“My horse felt a lot of pressure in the warm-up arena. The speakers are very loud, the spectators. The horses see the [other] horses galloping around the track in the warm-up place. He was really, really nervous in the warm up. Then out of the start box he was so motivated and too much running sometimes, not always listening to me like normal, so we need a bit more time sometimes on the fences. But all in all he gave me a good feeling.
“I am very happy that he is very healthy at the finish.”
If he manages to top the podium, Sam will become only the third eventing horse in history to achieve back-to-back individual gold medals at an Olympic Games.
