‘A strong position'

Britain lead despite none of the trio doing their best test, while favourite Michael Jung is a class apart

-  Michael Jung

IT was a mark of the Brits’ extraordinary strength coming into this Olympics that all three riders were to some degree disappointed after their dressage, and yet they held the team gold at the conclusion of this phase.

With Team GB drawn early, Oliver Townend was second to go with Ballaghmor Class on Friday morning. The pair put in what Oliver described as “a very safe test” – they only scored two marks below a seven and had a couple of nines for a final mark of 23.6.

“We know he’s special and I’m just very grateful to him for a clear round in there. You think because there’s no crowd, there’s no atmosphere, but these stadiums create enough of their own atmosphere to push horses into lacking concentration,” he said, adding of his score: “On my own terms, I’d want a little bit more but I think it’s a very good starting mark for the team.”

It proved much more than that. The judges – Britain’s Nick Burton, the USA’s Jane Hamlin and Sweden’s Christina Klingspor – resisted any temptation towards mark inflation as the competition progressed and Oliver found himself the overnight leader after the second team rotation. By the end of the sole Saturday session, only one horse had gone ahead of him, so he held the individual silver position going into cross-country.

The second British team horse, London 52, made no obvious mistakes – his marks came down a touch in a couple of flying changes but were otherwise solid. But he seemed to shrink in the arena, rather than showing offfor the score of 21 Laura Collett could reasonably have expected. He was pegged at 25.8.