New Zealand equestrian team qualifies for Rio Olympics
New Zealand’s equestrian eventers qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics on Monday morning (NZ time) at the Military Boekelo Horse Trials in The Netherlands.
The team, featuring Jonelle Price on Cloud Dancer II, Tim Price on Xavier Faer, Jesse Campbell on Kaapachino and Dan Jocelyn on Dassett Cool Touch, also finished third in the Nations Cup behind winners Ireland and the United States. The New Zealand team’s only rivals for their Group F and G spot at Rio were Japan, who had fallen by the wayside after Sunday’s cross country.
They still had to complete Monday’s CCI3 showjumping to confirm their place and this proved challenging for many riders, with just eight starters going clear and inside the time.
One of those eight was Kiwi rider Blyth Tait – two-time Boekolo winner and Olympic gold medallist in Atlanta in 1996 – who finished second on 49.2 penalty points aboard Xanthus III behind British rider Nicola Wilson on Bulana with 47.1 points.
Equestrian Sports New Zealand high performance eventing coach Erik Duvander said he was very pleased with the team finally securing their place in Rio and he was particularly happy with Tait, as well as praising other horses who had shown some ‘‘good poten- tial at this next level’’ in the tough showjumping event.
‘‘We came here with the team we believed would be good enough to qualify and we have, so now we can fully focus on our Olympic preparation,’’ he said. ‘‘A few of the younger horses are still learning – we need to to a bit more work with them to carry on improving in the showjumping.’’
The next best placed Kiwis were Jocelyn on Beaucatcher, who finished 18th on 60.8, and Jonelle Price on Cloud Dancer finished 22nd on 62.9.
Jesse Campbell on Kaapachino was second going into the all important showjumping event but she picked up 21 faults and slipped down to 26th.
The remaining Kiwi riders were Tim Price on Xavier Faer, who finished in 34th with 71.5, while Lizzie Brown on Princeton were just behind them on 74.9. Jocelyn and his team horse Dassett Cool Touch were 45th on 81.6.