Leading rider out of Olympic team showjumping after two horses spun at re-inspection

Both horses who had to be re-presented following this morning’s Olympic showjumping first trot-up failed this afternoon’s re-inspection. This means France’s Kevin Staut and Mexico’s Andres Azcarraga are out of the Paris Olympics team competition and both nations will need to field their alternate riders when the jumping action starts tomorrow.

Losing Kevin Staut and Viking D’La Rousserie from the Paris Olympics team showjumping will be a heavy blow for France as he is an experienced championship rider. He was a team gold medallist at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and has four other senior championship medals to his name including individual gold at the 2009 Europeans at Windsor with Kraque Boom.

France will now field alternate rider Olivier Perreau, who finished eighth at last year’s Europeans with his ride here, the 11-year-old mare Dorai D’Aiguilly. Olivier will be making his Olympic debut. He will join Simon Delestre riding I Amelusina R 51 and Julien Epaillard with Dubai Du Cedre.

The elimination of Andres Azcarraga means Mexico brings in alternate Federico Fernandez, who will ride Romeo. This will be Federico’s fourth Olympics and he rode this 13-year-old grey stallion at the 2022 World Championships and last year’s Pan Am Games. His team mates are Eugenio Garza Perez with Contago and Carlos Hank Guerreiro riding Porthos Maestro WH Z.

Technically Kevin and Andres can present their horses at the horse inspection for the individual competition on Saturday afternoon (3 August) and take part in that contest if they pass, but of course whether the riders do so will depend on the reason for their elimination and whether their horses are fit to compete.

The team competition tomorrow starts with riders from all 20 teams tackling one round against the clock, with time and penalties combined to rank each competitor. The top 10 teams then progress to Friday’s team medal decider, when they start again on a clean slate of zero penalties.

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