‘Dubs was phenomenal from start to finish’: Tom McEwen thrills in Olympic cross-country

Tom McEwen has kept Britain’s gold medal hopes firmly alive with a superb clear Olympic eventing cross-country round at the Paris Games this morning (28 July).

Tom was pathfinder for the Brits and the 10th rider of the day to tackle course-designer Pierre Le Goupil’s galloping track, with  Jo and James Lambert and Deirdre Johnston’s JL Dublin.

The 13-year-old gelding looked full of running as the pair became the second combination of the day to come home inside the 9min 2 sec optimum time, stopping the clock on 8.58, to add nothing to their 25.8 dressage.

“I usually don’t show too much emotion and it even brought emotion out of me. So that’s how well it went. Dubs was phenomenal from start to finish,” said a delighted Tom.

“It is a fantastic Olympic course, it allows you to be really open and free to begin with and then requires the riders to think where you need to close up. It’s been such a great course I actually changed my mind on some of the elements just as we were about to start from watching how they were jumping.”

A number of the track’s combinations gave riders alternative routes or left or right-handed options, including fence 10abc The Vauben Citadel, a water complex with a ditch, arrowhead, and corner, and fence 16abcd The Viewpoint over the Grand Canal, a drop leading to arrowheads.

“At fence 10 I took the straight route in, I did see on the screen a lot of people taking the left hand corner, but I was right hand by preference. I just thought if that jump coming in did cause a massive jump, you had an option of five or six strides waiting, or even taking a little bit more time. I just felt it was a little bit safer and no time required.”

Tom added that for fence 16abcd he had always planned to take the right hand option, but he made a last minute decision to opt for the left.

“I changed my mind 30 seconds before going. The first ditch was jumping really well and I just watched a few on screen and they weren’t quite reading the ditch at the bottom from what I understand, which surprised me as I thought they’d jump it really well. But changing lines was just a safer route we felt,” he said.

Tom praised the enthusiastic crowd.

“It is the most amazing crowd all the way around, it is absolutely lined, not just the fences, in-between the fences, every single area is packed with people. I love it and the horses love it even more,” he said.

“It’s definitely easier being first than third to go, I can now chill out and watch the girls do an incredible job. They are probably the two best riders in the world at the moment so they’ll be fantastic to watch round this course.”

Yesterday (27 July) Britain set a new Olympic record-best score of 66.7 in the dressage, and went into the cross-country with a 7.4pen lead over Germany. Laura Collett and London 52, who are also in contention for an individual medal thanks to their Olympic record-breaking 17.5 dressage, are next up for the Brits at 12.38pm local time (11.38am UK time).

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