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Sunday, October 1
Medals decided in jumpoff
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- A horse race decided the Olympic
individual show jumping medals, with two Dutch riders taking gold
and silver.
Jeroen Dubbeldam of the Netherlands rode the timed jumpoff with
no rails down in 50.65 seconds to take the gold here Sunday.
|  | | The Netherlands' Albert Voorn came one rail short of winning the gold medal Sunday. |
His countryman, Albert Voorn, had a better time but knocked one
rail down to win silver on Lando. He was barely faster than Khaled
Al Eid of Saudi Arabia, who also had one rail down on Khashm Al Aan
and won bronze. Voorn's time was 44.72 seconds and Al Eid rode in
44.86 seconds.
The three riders tied after the first two rounds, scoring four
faults each for one rail down, thus setting up a timed jumpoff for
all the medals.
The closest American rider was Margie Goldstein Engle of
Wellington, Fla., who had one rail in the first round on Perin and
two in the second to finish 10th.
"He didn't feel tired," Engle said of her horse. "He was
jumping very high. I could possibly have been overriding because of
the rail in the first round."
Lauren Hough of Ocala, Fla., had two rails down in each round on
Clasiko and finished tied for 15th.
"It's over," she said after the second round. "He was a
little bit unlucky, and it was a little bit my fault. I'm so proud
of my horse."
Laura Kraut of Oconomowoc, Wis., had three rails down in the
first round and withdrew from the second, thus placing 43rd. She
felt the wind, blowing in 35 mph gusts, distracted her mare
Liberty.
"She's got plenty of energy, but she lost her concentration,"
Kraut said. "My horse started out super, and she's just a bit
fried."
Dubbeldam and Voorn were hugging and crying together after their
victory gallop.
"I've been riding Sjiem four years and have been second, third,
fourth in many grand prix events," Dubbeldam said. "I never won a
grand prix, but I won the Olympics."
"I'm very emotional," said Voorn. "The whole time here, we
were not considered to have the experience and mentality that we
could win a medal."
Al Eid's bronze was the first-ever equestrian medal for Saudi
Arabia and only the country's second medal in Sydney.
The biggest surprise of the competition was the elimination of
current world champion Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil, who had a clean
first round and looked like a shoo-in for the gold. But then his
mount Baloubet Du Rouet refused a fence three times in the second.
The United States finished sixth in team show jumping Thursday.
The Dutch riders who did so well Sunday finished only fifth in the
team event.
There were 45 riders in the individual competition, down from
the 74 that started in the first qualifier on Monday.
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