Britain To Win – But Don't Relax

The new format means anything could happen, but Britain should be strong, says H&H eventing editor Pippa Roome

- Pippa Roome

THIS is the most unpredictable Olympic eventing contest of our time, for two reasons. The first is Covid-19, which has meant that riders’ competition patterns have been disturbed, horses have had a quiet time and most people have stayed national for events, so we haven’t seen pairs from different countries head-to-head as much as usual. There are notably older horses at these Games and fewer younger ones; not many people have had the opportunity to push a fast-developing nine-year-old onto Tokyo.

The second is the new Olympic Format, which pits teams of three against one another with all to count, accompanied by a raft of confusing substitution rules (see p41). One mistake will take a team down and it’s very possible that three mediocre performances will propel a surprising nation to the podium, while one of the big guns steps aside because their two excellent scores are marred by a slip-up from the third pair.

AGAINST that backdrop, Britain starts as a favorite. They field three potential individual medallists. In fact, it’s a mark of Team GB’s extraordinary strength in depth that alternate Piggy March (Brookfield Innocent) could be on the podium individually if called in.

The riders – Laura Collett (London 52), Tom McEwen (Toledo De Kerser), and Oliver Townend (Ballaghmor Class) – are all Olympic debutants, but also all five-star winners on their Olympic mounts. They could well all be top 10 after dressage and none of them have an obvious weakness.

Data analytics company EquiRatings says the British squad is the second strongest Olympic team ever, beaten only by the Germans at Rio – it’s worth noting they finished second (to France), so ratings can’t always predict a result.