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The FEI has received notification of an additional and final doping/medication case at the 2008 Olympic Games involving rider Rodrigo Pessoa (BRA) and his horse Rufus.   A test carried out on the horse following the individual final revealed an A sample that tested positive for the banned substance nonivamide, part of the capsaicinoid family and classified as a« doping » prohibited substance given its hypersensitizing properties, and as a « medication class A » prohibited substance for its pain relieving properties.
The sample was received by the laboratory on Saturday 23 August following the individual Jumping Final at which Rodrigo Pessoa and Rufus placed fifth. A preliminary hearing was held by teleconference at 17h00 on 28 August before a member of the FEI Tribunal and the suspension was confirmed on 29 August. 

The B sample test is scheduled for Tuesday 2 September in Hong Kong.
Should the B sample confirm the findings of the A sample the process will follow the Accelerated Medication Control Procedure during & after the 2008 Olympic Games which is part of the FEI Regulations for Equestrian events at the 2008 Olympic Games (Annex G), available on FEI Olympic website. 

Evidence and written submissions will be requested and a hearing will be held before the FEI Tribunal. However it is up to the Person Responsible whether or not they wish to exercise or waive their right to be heard. The panel will then, in light of all the evidence received, take a decision as to the applicable sanction if any.
An update will be provided by the FEI following the result of the B sample and subsequently further updates regarding the hearing and final decision.  

The competition results will be amended as indicated in the Tribunal’s final decision.

In terms of testing at the 2008 Olympic Games, all results have now been received, and there are no remaining cases to be reported.

HONG KONG — Four horses and their riders were suspended from Olympic show jumping on Thursday after preliminary tests suggested that the skin of the horses might have been treated with a banned derivative of chili peppers.

Combinations of horses and riders from Brazil, Germany, Ireland and Norway were suspended after initial tests showed the presence of capsaicin, which is widely used in topical ointments for the treatment of minor horse injuries. The substance is banned at the Olympics because it can also serve as a mild stimulant.

The banned rider Tony Andre Hansen and his horse, Camiro, were part of the Norwegian show jumping team that captured a bronze medal on Monday. The international federation for equestrian sports, the sport’s governing body, deferred a decision on whether to revoke the bronze medal until after final test results were confirmed.

Another round of tests on medical samples from the horses will take a week, the federation said in a statement. A hearing on the second round of tests is to be held by Sept. 8, and a final decision issued by the first week of October.

Denis Lynch, the suspended Irish rider, said at a news conference on Thursday that he had used an ointment, Equi-Block, for more than a year to help warm the back muscles of his horse, Latinus, for competition. He said that he had never thought to mention it to his team’s veterinarian or noticed that the label mentioned that the ointment contained capsaicin.

Dr. Midge Leitch, a veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania who worked for the United States equestrian team at the 1988, 1996 and 2000 Olympics, said in a telephone interview that the riders might have unknowingly used products containing capsaicin. “It’s pretty readily detected, so most people would not use it knowingly at an Olympic Games,” she said.

Skin swabs are routinely taken from horses at the Olympics to test for capsaicin. Though capsaicin is widely used in horse ointments, it occurs in such small quantities that Equi-Block and other products are widely marketed as being legal for use on horses engaged in competitions.

Equi-Block is distributed by MiracleCorp of Dayton, Ohio. When told that a horse had been suspended from the Olympics after supposedly being treated with his product, Nick Woods, the Equi-Block sales and marketing consultant for MiracleCorp, said, “There should not have been a problem with it.”

Woods referred all further questions to the company’s president and chief executive, Bill Sherk, who did not return calls for comment.

Leitch said that capsaicin-free ointments were available and that Olympic riders should always pay great attention to the ingredients of every horse medicine used.

This year is the first time that Olympic equestrian events have been held at a place that also has on site one of the world’s handful of equine antidoping test laboratories. The Hong Kong Jockey Club laboratory has built a global reputation for thoroughness to discourage the chicanery that has sometimes marred horse racing in Asia.

In an unusual incident last year, for example, someone sneaked onto a racecourse here and buried pneumatic tubes and sedative-tipped darts in the turf where the horses start.

The scheme, at a different site in Hong Kong from where the Olympic competition is being held, was uncovered just before racing began. The police have speculated that the plan may have been to place bets on long-shot horses, then fire darts into the bellies of the favorites, but detectives have failed to find the culprits.

The positive results in initial tests this week are the latest setback for a sport that has struggled with doping standards for years. In the Athens Olympics in 2004, the winning show jumping team from Germany and the winning individual show jumper from Ireland were disqualified and required to surrender their gold medals when tests discovered banned chemicals in the horses.

The banned chemicals in those cases did not include capsaicin. The international equestrian federation has taken the position that deliberate horse doping is not a widespread problem in the sport and that most violations result from the use of medicines by riders who do not realize that the treatments include banned chemicals.

In addition to Lynch on Latinus and Hansen on Camiro, the combinations of riders and horses suspended on Thursday were Bernardo Alves of Brazil on Chupa Chup and Christian Ahlmann of Germany on Coster.

All six Olympic equestrian events were moved to Hong Kong after Beijing was unable to convince international veterinary groups that it could provide sites demonstrably free of equine influenza, an airborne disease endemic in China.

Olympic officials succeeded on Thursday in finishing the individual show jumping event, the last equestrian event in Hong Kong, before the expected arrival of Typhoon Nuri on Friday. Eric Lamaze of Canada, aboard Hickstead, won the gold medal. Rolf-Goran Bengtsson of Sweden, aboard Ninja, won the silver; and Beezie Madden of the United States, aboard Authentic, took the bronze.

The US may have edged out Canada for Olympic gold in the team show jumping event, but the individual competition belonged to Eric Lamaze and Hickstead of Canada. They helped anchor the Canadian team in winning the team silver, and kept up their consistent performances throughout today’s individual rounds.

After a two-way jump off for Olympic gold, Eric won while Rolf-Goran Bengtsson of Sweden took the silver. Beezie Madden and Authentic of the USA came out on top of a seven-way jump-off for the bronze.

Round A
The 34 riders (supposed to be top 35, but Will Simpson wasn’t allowed to ride as only three from each nation may compete in the individual finals) had their scores to date wiped and started fresh in Round A of the individual show jumping finals. Nine riders had clear rounds, while 12 were right behind them with four faults.

The clear rounds included Beezie Madden, Eric Lamaze, Rolf-Goran, Camila Benedicto (Brazil), Angelique Hoorn (Netherlands), Stein Endresen (Norway), Tim Stockdale (Great Britain), Mar Houtzager (Netherlands), Ben Maher (Great Britain), and Jos Lansink (Belgium).

22 total riders moved on to Round B, 10 clears and 12 carrying 4 faults to Round B

Round B
The Round B course was much less forgiving than Round A. It favored the horse and rider teams with slightly cooler heads, who sat back and relaxed through the course. The combinations were tight, and many horses dropped rails on the second or third fence because they had a little too much momentum and got too close.

Beezie Madden was one who was having an excellent go and just got a little too much momentum through the triple and dropped a rail on the third fence.

Dropping rails seemed to be a domino effect; if you dropped a rail in the beginning or middle of the course, you dropped rails on several subsequent fences. More than a few riders left the arena with over 12 faults.

A very cool, unusual fence designed as a dragon was the downfall for many riders. It’s height must have been deceptive, because rider after rider came in to close and dropped the top plank. The crowd picked up on its difficulty, and cheered racously every time a horse and rider navigated the dragon fence successfully.

Ludger Beerbaum, one of the favorites who hadn’t performed as well as expected to date, had the first clear round. He took his time on the course and it paid off.

Jill Henselwood’s horse, who went well in the team competition to help Canada take silver, fell apart in Round B. He dropped his back end mid air (strangest thing I’ve seen), literally dropping his back end below his shoulders over the fence. They dropped a few more rails after that and refused a fence. Jill bowed out gracefully, and retired from the competition without completing the course.

Many of the show jumping greats who’d been less than stellar thus far brought their top game today and went clear in Round B, including Ludger Beerbaum, Roderigo Pessoa, and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum.

With only two riders left go, and no double clear rounds yet, the competition came to a screeching halt due to a malfunction on course. A jump with water underneath it somehow overflowed, or a pipe burst, and a huge puddle instantly formed on the landing side of the fence. A handful of ring crew members ran out with rakes to clean up the mess. As soon as it was ready again, it started raining.

The delay definitely didn’t hurt the final two riders, as they both went clear, sending them into a jump off for the gold and silver.

Jump-Off
The jump-off began with the seven riders who were competing for the bronze medal: Beezie Madden, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Roderigo Pessoa, McLain Ward, Ludger Beerbaum, Marc Houtzager, and Angelique Hoorn.

The riders came in asking for a quick pace, cutting corners whereever possible. Ludger Beerbaum dropped a rail, and then Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Roderigo Pesso went clear, with Meredith taking the faster time.

Then McLain Ward and Sapphire came on course with the most memorable ride of the night. There weren’t many places the riders could take shortcuts to try to save time, so McLain made one. At one place in the course, riders had to turn back from an oxer to a vertical, going around some decorative landscaping in between. McLain turned Sapphire early, jumped the landscaping, took a few strides, and jumped the vertical — successfully. The crowd loved it. He started pushing to the final fence, a wall and they kind of crashed through due to the speed they took it at. Those final four faults kept them out of the medals, but it was a spectacular ride.

Two riders later, McLain’s teammate Beezie tried his approach, leaping the landscaping, clearing the vertical, and moving quickly through the rest of the course for a clear round. The shortcut shaved off just enough time for her and Authentic to come in one tenth of a second under Meredith’s time and claim the bronze.

The final two riders were Eric Lamaze and Rolf-Goran fighting for the gold. Rolf went first, obviously playing it safe by keeping a slower speed. It was a solid run, but he came to the final fence at a little too much of an angle and dropped a brick from the wall for four faults. Eric knew he just needed to go clean, he keep his cool under the immense pressure and jumped a superb clear round to take the Gold Medal!

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All-in-all it was a very exciting competition for the 2008 Olympic show jumping individual medals.

Final Standings
1 Eric Lamaze (Hickstead), Canada
2 Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (Ninja), Sweden
3 Beezie Madden (Authentic), USA
4 Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (Shutterfly), Germany
5 Roderigo Pessoa (Rufus), Brazil
6 McLain Ward (Sapphire), USA
7 Ludger Beerbaum (All Inclusive), Germany
8 Marc Houtzager (Opium), Netherlands
9 Angelique Hoorn (O’Brien), Netherlands
10 Jean-Claude van Geenberghe (Quintus), Ukraine
10 Morten Djupvik (Casino), Norway
10 Steve Guerdat (Jalisca Solier), Switzerland
10 Edwina Alexandra (Itot Du Chateau), Australia
10 Camila Benedicto (Bonito Z), Brazil
10 Jos Lansink (Cumano), Belgium
16 Gerco Schroder (Monaco), Netherlands
16 Stein Endresen (Le Beau), Norway
16 Tim Stockdale (Corlato), Great Britain
19 Lotta Schultz (Calibra II), Sweden
20 Ben Maher (Rolette), Great Britain
21 Matt Williams (Leconte), Australia

THE disqualification of four horses from the Olympics for doping may show a trend that threatens to destroy equestrian, a senior official says.
Sven Holmberg, head of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) jumping committee, alluded to the long campaign from within the IOC to eject horse sports from the Olympics line-up.

“This is certainly a serious blow to the sport and we are well aware of the possible implications for the sport and its position in the Olympics,” he said.

“The four cases tested positive for the same substance. I don’t know if we can say it’s a trend but it contributes to the seriousness of the case.”

Bernardo Alves of Brazil, Christian Ahlmann of Germany, Denis Lynch of Ireland and Tony Andre Hansen of Norway were disqualified when their horses tested positive for capsaicin, a numbing agent.

The incident resurrected the spectre of Athens in 2004 and Sydney in 2000, when show jumping team and individual medals were re-allocated due to doping.

It has also again raised questions about the continued inclusion of elite horse sports - which cost more money and attract more competitors than any other Olympic sport - in the Games.

IOC president Jacques Rogge attended the final on Monday of the team show jumping event at the centre of the scandal, as the Norwegians will have to hand back their bronze medal if the B-sample from Hansen’s horse returns positive.

Rogge’s timing was a relief for the FEI as the final went to a crowd-pleasing jump-off, unlike the dressage which had spectators sleeping in the stands.

This doping scandal will not please the doctor who has put cleanliness at the centre his Olympics presidency.

And Hong Kong leaders who had hoped these events would allow them to bask in a little reflected Olympic glory will be angry and disappointed.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) spent about 150 million US dollars on these events after Beijing passed them on to the former British colony, along with a little political kudos, because of Chinese quarantine issues.

While most facilities revert to the racing industry, the legacy officials said the Olympics would leave behind has dissolved.

Horse sports, never popular in Hong Kong, look dirty and show jumping looks cruel.

Irish team vet Marcus Swail told AFP treatments containing the banned susbstance, capsaicin, were commonplace and “four grooms from other teams” had approached him to say they also used products containing the numbing agent.

The horses in question were among 60 the FEI said were tested - 20 each from eventing, dressage and jumping of a total of 218. Samples were analysed at HKJC labs, considered among the world’s best.

A club source wondered if the HKJC’s ability to detect the agent had been underestimated as no positive tests for capsaicin have been returned before now though it has been testable for two years.

The substance is a by-product of chilli and its use points not only to widespread doping but cruelty in the training regimes for show jumpers.

It causes first hypersensitivity and then numbness, much like chilli does to the mouth and lips.

Applied to the legs, it would cause the animal to lift higher to avoid hitting on the fences.

Denis Lynch, who came here with a team already aware of Ireland’s poor reputation and desperate to avoid controversy, produced a pot of linement he said he used to warm his horse’s muscles during training.

Lynch did not inform his team vet he was using the product, called Equiblock — the label of which clearly states: “Contains capsaicin. Will not test positive”.

The USA pipped Canada for team Jumping gold in a thrilling third-round jump-off at Sha Tin Stadium in Hong Kong tonight (Monday). And Norway climbed all the way up from overnight joint-sixth place to take bronze thanks to a spirited team performance.

The Swiss had to settle for fourth ahead of Germany and The Netherlands in joint-fifth while Great Britain, down to just three team-members due to the loss of John Whitaker and Peppermill, finished sixth. As Swedish luck ran out, they plummeted from third to eighth while the Australians slotted into ninth place but the Aussies, also with just three in their side, fought a tremendous battle after pathfinder Peter McMahon broke his collarbone in a fall in the practice ring.

To take a medal with just three riders however is a remarkable feat by any measure. Team Canada’s day began with the news that Mac Cone’s horse, Ole, would be withdrawn as he was unsound, but nothing was going to kill their hunger for a share of those Olympic medals. “The odds are that you have no chance with a team of just three but you gotta try,” said Canadian hero Ian Millar tonight, and try they did, to the very end.

TENSION

There was huge tension in the British camp right up to the start of the competition as they awaited the Appeal Committee decision in relation to John Whitaker’s participation. Whitaker’s 11-year old stallion was withdrawn yesterday because he was stiff and uncomfortable, but was considered fit for duty again today. And when the Ground Jury met this morning (Monday) at 11am to consider a request from the British team, it was agreed that the horse and rider could compete in tonight’s second round of the team event. 

However seven of the nine qualified teams then lodged a protest following which the Ground Jury upheld its earlier decision but when the teams formally launched an appeal to the Appeal Committee who met at Sha Tin at 4pm local time today the objections were upheld and the British rider was declared ineligible to jump.

The rule which was applied was Article 264.4 from the FEI Rules for Jumping Events which states that “a full Nations Cup team comprises four competitors each riding the same horse throughout the competition. All members of each team must take part in the first round, except as stated in paragraph 4.2 below and in paragraph 7.2″. Paragraph 4.2. states that “if a team, comprising four competitors, cannot improve its placing in the first or second round after its third competitor has completed his course, the fourth competitor may be withdrawn”. A clear or four-fault round from Whitaker yesterday would have improved the British result.

A 13-fault opening effort from Nick Skelton and Russel put the final nail in the British coffin as the competition got underway tonight.

THE TEST

Another track full of questions and surprises faced horses and riders once again - Leopoldo Palacios and Steve Stephens presenting them with flair, colour and creativity.

A left-hand turn after the opening vertical led to the triple bar followed by a dog-leg to the 1.50m white oxer at three and then a check of control and positioning at the skinny, snaky planks at fence four. A left-hand bend to the vertical at five was followed by another big question over the first of the three doubles on the track - would horses be distracted by the liverpool water-trays under both the opening oxer and the vertical second element? Now the pressure was full-on with acceleration required on approach to the narrow open water - 4.10m wide - with just four good strides to the next double, vertical to vertical, at fence eight. This would prove pivotal. A turn-back to the oxer at nine, a right bend to the planks at 10 and a left-hand turn brought horses down the final line. And here the brightly-coloured wall at 11 was followed by a double of oxers at 12 and then, on a curving line, the final vertical at 13.

“It’s a difficult track - it was very technical yesterday and even more so today,” said Belgium’s reigning World Champion Jos Lansink whose stallion Cumano is clearly really enjoying his jumping again after a long lay-off due to injury. “The course builder is using the water fences very cleverly,” he pointed out after putting in one of the earliest tours of the course, picking up just two time faults. “The water is going to be a problem for a lot of riders,” he added, and he was quite correct.

A GOOD START

The first-day joint-leaders from the USA made a good start when McLain Ward’s only mistake with Sapphire was at the water, and when Laura Kraut’s Cedric put in a spectacular clear they were looking very strong indeed. “Tonight he was completely relaxed,” Kraut said afterwards. “We had a mix-up in the practice ring when he thought a shadow was a groundline but things like that don’t bother him, it just made him more attentive, and he felt amazing in there. My biggest worry was about the liverpool double but he soared over it. It’s hard to believe how much he has come on over the last year. In May 2007 we jumped in the Super League in Rome and it was too much for him but he has decided to peak at the right moment - I’m thrilled with him,” she pointed out.

The joint-leaders from Switzerland however were in trouble right away. Pathfinder Christina Liebherr had a nightmare ride with No Mercy who lived up to his name when dragging her at break-neck speed around much of the track and, having hit the oxer at three, put a foot in the water and lowered the oxer at nine she had to pull up in front of the second element of 11 before circling to finish. “He is either a genius or a crazy horse, and today he was a crazy, crazy horse,” the rider said in resignation after putting 23 faults on the board.

Team-mate Pius Schwizer meanwhile made an amazing recovery when Nobless M threw in an objection on the approach to the vertical at five, and did well to complete with just five faults this time out.

All eyes were on the Germans who, so surprisingly, were trailing the field after yesterday’s opening round but any hope of a rapid climb up the order would be halted by 19 faults for Marco Kutscher when, in an effort to take a sharp check after a strong ride to the water, he stopped Cornet Obolensky in his tracks. Clearly unsettled, the handsome stallion completed, dropping several fences on his way home.

RISING

The Australians however were really rising to the challenge and Laurie Lever’s excellent four-fault effort with the brave Drossel Dan was followed by a fabulous clear from Edwina Alexander and Itot du Chateau. If last man in, 23 year old Matt Williams, could hold it together they would be challenging for a medal at the end.

Lying fourth overnight, the Norwegians were also making good progress despite a 12-fault result from pathfinder Stein Endresen when Morten Djupvik and Casino lowered only the second element of the double at fence eight and Geir Gulliksen picked up just five with Cattani. The Dutch were unable to make any real headway, eight faults for Angelique Hoorn and O’Brien and a good five-fault round from Marc Houtzager and Opium followed by an unhappy 27 from Vincent Voorn and Alpapillon-Armanie. And the Swedes, in overnight third, were fading fast too, Peter Eriksson’s good opening four-fault result with Jaguar Mail followed by 20 from Lotta Schultz and Calibra and 17 for Helena Lundback and Erbblume - they couldn’t claw their way back from there.

The Canadians however were blossoming under pressure - Jill Henselwood paving the way with a superb clear, one of just five on the day, from the aptly-named Special Ed and Eric Lamaze keeping them right in the game with just a single mistake, at the second element of the penultimate double, with the big-jumping Hickstead. And as it came down to the closing stages it was clear that the weight of Canadian responsibility would fall on the mature shoulders of nine-time Olympian Ian Millar.

The line-up was already taking shape, the Germans finally finished off when Ludger Beerbaum’s All Inclusive stopped when the partnership could not find the distance from the water to the following double to complete with six faults while Australian hopes were finally dashed by 17-fault round from Matt Williams. “I did too much with my horse in the warm-up, and halfway around the course I paid the price,” the young man said philosophically.

A GREAT DEAL

The Dutch just couldn’t stay afloat despite just a single error for Gerco Schroder and Monaco but Norwegian anchorman Tony Andre Hansen produced another fabulous round with Camiro. Hansen has been training with former Irish rider Gerry Mullins for the last six years and he has honed to skills to great effect over the past 12 months - his one time-fault the only addition to the Norwegian scoreline. “I want to thank Gerry a lot,” he said today, “he pushed me and pushed me and here we are now - I owe him a great deal,” he added.

It was clear that Norway would now take bronze but it took a foot-perfect round from Ian Millar to secure the Canadian position and, if Beezie Madden could leave all the fences up when last to go with Authentic then the Americans would take gold ahead of them. But a foot on the tape at the bogey water ensured a jump-off instead, both teams now sharing a total of 20 faults apiece.

You could cut the air with a knife as McLain Ward led the way in the third and final round, throwing down the gauntlet with the coolest clear from Sapphire over the new track which asked for a strong gallop to the new final oxer, and when Henselwood hit the wall, now fence two, the Canadians began to look vulnerable. Laura Kraut piled on the pressure with an amazing ride with Cedric who also left the fences intact but Lamaze pulled it back for Canada when producing the quickest time, 36.35 seconds, with Hickstead. If Will Simpson made a mistake then it would all fall back on Millar again, but a powerful clear from Carlsson Vom Dach sealed the deal - it was all over and the US held that precious gold while the Canadians had to do with silver.  That wasn’t really a problem for them though, because they have waited a long, long time for this.

HISTORICAL

It was an historic Canadian moment because they have not held an Olympic medal since Tom Gayford, Jim Day and Jim Elder took gold in Mexico City in 1968 - a full 40 years ago. And at 61 years of age, the record-breaking Ian Millar was very happy with tonight’s result. “I’ve been riding on Canadian teams for 39 years” he said, “and there have been a lot of good days but the Olympic Games have never gone my way so to be part of this is remarkable. I want to say thanks to my great team and horses and to the team that have been behind us all,” he added.

“When Mac’s horse was out this morning it didn’t seem like we had any chance of a medal, and then Jill inspired us all with her great ride. She left us no choice but to have a real go - she set the standard and we had to follow” he explained. And, even though he will be 65 when the next Olympic Games are held in 2012, he is looking forward to it already. “I’m going to try again for London - I’ve picked out the horse already!” he said. 

The Norwegians meanwhile were relishing their bronze, a first-ever Jumping prize for their country which has not taken part in the equestrian Olympic contest since 1992. “When we qualified at the Europeans last summer we didn’t really believe we could go this far - you dream that it might happen but this, to us, is as good as winning gold!” said Stein Endresen.  “Finally we have a team riding at the same level at the same time - and the team spirit has been unbelievable” said Hansen while team manager, Sylve Soderstrand, added with some satisfaction “the team have stuck to the plan we made two years ago, and that is why we are here today.”

The Americans meanwhile were looking happy if a little stunned and Laura Kraut admitted that the whole of the final sequence of events had taken her by surprise. “I was a bit dazed and confused going into the jump-off, we weren’t really sure it was going to happen until the last minute and our horses were already going back to the stables - there was no time to think about it. I just knew, going in, that I needed to be clear and fast and it just turned into our night - the Canadians made us work for it though!” she pointed out. 

“I was sorry because I made my team jump in the jump-off - I should have sealed it in the second round, but I’m glad how it worked out” said Beezie Madden. Team manager George Morris was looking pretty pleased too, because it had worked out just fine.

An American triumph, a Canadian moment to remember and for Norway the reward of commitment and the willingness to work together to make the impossible dream into a reality.

HONG KONG - After nine Olympics, Ian Millar finally has a medal to call his own.

The equestrian rider from Perth, Ont., rode the anchor leg for Canada’s silver-medal winning show jumping team Monday at the Shatin Olympic Equestrian Venue.

Canada’s team of Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, Ont., Jill Henselwood of Oxford Mills, Ont., Mac Cone of King City, Ont., and Millar lost in a gold-medal jumpoff to the United States.

Millar, 61, made his Olympic debut in 1972 in Munich, Germany, and has competed in every Summer Games since - except for the boycotted Games in Moscow in 1980 - but had failed to win a medal every time. Until now.

The Americans - Ward Mclain on Sapphire, Laura Kraut on Cedric, Will Simpson on Carlsson Vom Dach and Beezie Madden on Authentic - were perfect in the jumpoff, while Henselwood had four faults for Canada on Special Ed. Madden and Millar didn’t have to ride in the jumpoff with the gold already clinched after three U.S. riders.

Canada came into the final round tied for fourth with 16 faults, four behind the United States and Switzerland, but were able to make up ground with a pair of clear rides in the final.

Only the top-three scores from the four-member team count, but Canada had no margin for error in the final as Cone’s horse Ole was injured and unable to compete.

The rest of the team came through with both Millar, aboard In Style, and Henselwood riding clear rounds. Lamaze, who was clear in the first round on Sunday, had four faults riding Hickstead on Monday.

Canada and the United States both ended the final round with 20 faults, prompting the jumpoff. Norway won the bronze with 27 faults and Switzerland struggled Monday, dropping to fourth with 30 faults.

Canada last won a team jumping medal in 1968 when the team of James Day, James Elder and Thomas Gayford took home the gold in Mexico City.

Veteran British rider John Whitaker may take part in the last phase of the Olympics equestrian show jumping team final on Monday, Britain’s team leader said, as his horse was showing signs of recovery.

Whitaker made his withdrawal from the first phase of the show jumping final on Sunday as Peppermill was “quite stiff”, Britain’s team leader Will Connell said.

“It just wasn’t right to ask it to jump [on Sunday]. He’s better this morning and we will see how he is this evening,” Connell said.

The withdrawal of Whitaker, 53, came only days after younger brother Michael, 48, was forced to pull out after his horse was found lame. Nick Skelton is riding in Michael Whitaker’s place.

The Whitaker brothers, who won team silver in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, were seen as the anchors of the British team, who include first-time Olympians Tim Stockdale, 44, and Ben Maher, 25.

Whitaker’s withdrawal was announced during the first phase of the Olympics equestrian show jumping team on Sunday, with no immediate reason given for the pullout.

Switzerland and the United States tied for the top spot with 12 penalties in the first phase of the show jumping final on Sunday.

Britain and Canada tied for fourth place on 16 penalties.

The qualifier determines which teams will compete in Monday’s final, as well as the 50 riders who will go on to the final individual event on Thursday.

Switzerland and the USA share the lead after the thrilling first round of the Olympic Jumping team competition which took place at Sha Tin stadium in Hong Kong tonight (Sunday). Sweden lies third ahead of Great Britain and Canada in equal-fourth, while the Netherlands and Norway are tied for sixth place. But the biggest surprise of the day was the German performance, as the giants of the sport barely qualified for tomorrow’s medal-deciding second round when collecting 20 faults, just squeezing into eighth place along with the Australians.

The Aussies were well-pleased with their result so far. They started with two 16-fault performances from Peter McMahon (Genoa) and Laurie Lever (Dan Drossel) but Edwina Alexander’s clear with Itot du Chateau, one of only seven on the day, lifted their spirits and then 23-year old Matt Williams produced the ride of his life with his 12-year old gelding Leconte when clear all the way to the very last fence for four faults. Australian team manager Stephen Lamb said afterwards “going last Matt had all the pressure on him, but he handled it brilliantly for a young guy – we are very happy!”

CLEVER COURSE

The 13-fence course designed by Leopoldo Palacios and Steve Stephens was a work of genius and quickly brought the cream to the top. Starting out over an oxer, there was a gentle right-hand curve to a red vertical and then a left-hand run to a skinny vertical at three. It was here that the real work began as the following open water, narrow on take-off but a full 4.5m wide, was on an acute angle with little room for preparation and the fence-judge was busy raising that red flag all evening.

The following narrow red gate had the most slender of pencil-poles on top, a trademark characteristic of Palacios courses, and onward-bound horses found themselves deep to this, and then it was on to a double off a right-hand turn at six. With a triple-bar first element and an oxer to follow this proved influential, and many of the riders reported that the candy-coloured poles were difficult to see - “you definitely needed a horse with good eyesight on this track!” Canada’s Ian Millar commented.

The following planks, flanked by a mighty dragon which, fortunately, the horses couldn’t see, stood a maximum 1.60 metres tall, thus testing control after a forward ride from the previous double, and then the track curved left to the oxer at eight and sharp-right to the line that included a 1.60 m wall at nine with four strong strides to the following 1.50m oxer at 10. The horses that managed to jump clear to here were doing well but the next trap was in the triple combination at 11. Jumped off a left-hand bend it consisted of a 1.55m vertical to a 1.50m oxer and then a 1.55m vertical to finish. Despite the fact that it quickly became clear that the distance inside was tricky, riders kept coming in too strong and suffered the consequences time and again. This was followed by a 1.55m oxer with a 1.80m spread and finally, turning away from the in-gate, the last fence was a liverpool vertical standing at 1.60m.

With the 13 individual riders going first, it was Ireland’s Denis Lynch who first found the key with a great round from Lantinus who picked up just a single time penalty. He had spotted the traps. He almost pulled Lantinus back to walk before tackling the triple combination and explained afterwards “you need to jump the first part as if it’s a fence on its own and then push on for the second two elements - if you go in too forward there, you are going to have some part of it down. The course is very technical and very light - you have to concentrate all the way,” he pointed out.

DRAMA

There was plenty of drama in the early stages, Azerbaijan’s Jamal Rahimov taking a fall from Ionesco de Brekka at the penultimate oxer when the stallion straddled the poles, and the rider was subsequently taken to hospital for check-up but was released soon afterwards. Alexander Onischenko, pathfinder for The Ukraine, only got as far as fence three with Codar as the stallion refused to tackle the following water but it was the eight-fault performance of Christian Ahlmann with Coster who fell foul of the dragon planks at seven and then hit the first element of the bogey triple combination, and the 12 collected by Marco Kutscher and Cornet Obolensky who went in the water and then added eight more en route, that shook German confidence.

The Swedes, in stark contrast, were looking quite solid when Lotta Schultz and Calibra picked up just four faults to add to Peter Eriksson’s eight with Jaguar Mail, and when Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum added another four faults to the German tally, lowering the opening vertical at the combination, there was a gasp of amazement. What on earth was happening to the hot favourites who normally prove so untouchable at this level of the sport? Even Meredith wasn’t really sure what was going on.

“It’s not like we are not used to pressure, it’s just a big surprise here today,” she said afterward. She was happy with her round with Shutterfly - “I was maybe too fast into the triple”, she admitted, but she had expected that her team would have produced better results. So had here been a German miscalculation about their whole approach to this Olympic contest? Had they been over-confident in the early stages? “We had a plan, that we would use the first competition to train a bit the other day - it wasn’t that we didn’t take it seriously but maybe we didn’t get that right,” she said. “We are going to have to go back and sit together and discuss what has happened - it’s certainly not what we expected,” she added.

She said the course was “well set, but when I walked it I thought 50% of horses will jump into the water - there is almost a 90 degree turn there - and at the triple at the end you need to jump in short. We’ve only seen one clear so far, its a good, fair course but we will have to prepare for the second round tomorrow - if we get into the top eight teams tonight. If we do get through we won’t be giving up, we will come out fighting,” she insisted.

BACK IN THE GAME

With three mistakes from Helena Lundback and Erbblume the Swedes began to falter, but then Rolf-Goran Bengtsson produced a sensational fault-free round from Ninja, the very first of the competition, and they were right back in the game - an extraordinary turn-around for the nation that has struggled so hard to survive in the Samsung Super League with FEI series this season and which is currently fighting relegation. With typical understatement Bengtsson said afterwards - “that went pretty well” - as his side registered a final score of 13 faults.

McLain Ward and the brilliant mare Sapphire soon followed with a pathfinding clear for the USA. “I hope the rest of the team has good fortune,” he said, but he wasn’t going to get too over-excited just yet. “It’s not easy out there, only two clears so far but we’ve been building for this for over a year now with a great back-up team - we’ve sacrificed a lot and we will be disappointed if we go home without a medal. The Olympic Games is all about peaking at the right time. Sapphire was less sensitive today and she went great,” he added.

The British were holding their own, Nick Skelton’s eight faults with Russel followed by just four for both Tim Stockdale (Corlato) and Ben Maher (Rolette) but they would soon be hit hard by the news that John Whitaker’s Peppermill was unwell and would have to be withdrawn. “He wasn’t right coming out of the stable,” said Chef d’Equipe Derek Ricketts, “we’re not sure what’s wrong, he may be tied up, but he couldn’t jump like that. John is really very disappointed” the team manager explained.

They would now have to settle for the 16 faults they had on the board which would leave them on level-pegging with the Canadians who were boosted by a fantastic clear from Eric Lamaze whose stallion Hickstead was jumping like a cat. Mac Cone had collected 12 faults with Ole, and things were not looking so good when Jill Henselwood and Special Ed left four on the floor but Lamaze’s clear was followed by just four faults, at the penultimate oxer, for Ian Millar and In Style. And he was in upbeat mood. “Our first two riders didn’t have a good day today but they will clean up their act tomorrow - so see you on the podium!” he said with a smile.

STAYING STRONG

The USA stayed strong, Laura Kraut’s bouncing grey Cedric clear all the way to the very last and Will Simpson (Carlsson Vom Dach) and Beezie Madden (Authentic) collecting eight faults each. Madden however seemed to be en route to a perfect clear only to have an odd moment just before the triple combination when Authentic suddenly shook his head and ground to a halt. “This has happened a couple of times before,” the rider explained, “if he gets an insect in his ear he goes crazy, and he started waving his head and didn’t even see the fence”. She circled and re-presented to finish the course. Without those eight faults the USA would be in the lead as tomorrow’s second round gets underway but instead they kick off with a score of 12.

The Swiss meanwhile were most impressive. Sheer consistency - with just four faults each from Christina Liebherr (No Mercy), Pius Schwizer (Nobless M), Niklaus Schurtenberger (Cantus) and Steve Guerdat (Jalisca Solier) - also registered a 12 fault tally and there is something quietly confident about them. They have been showing uneven results in this year’s Samsung Super League with FEI series, so how to explain this turn-up for the books? “Well we haven’t actually had a bad season at all,” said team manager Rolf Grass, “we were second in La Baule and second again at St Gallen and we haven’t always been in a position to use our best horses and our best riders. But we’ve worked very hard to prepare for coming here,” he said.

Just a single fault separates the joint-leaders, Switzerland and America, from Sweden in third going into tomorrow’s (Monday) second round, while there is just a single fence between the joint-leaders and the fourth-placed British and Canadians. The Dutch and Norwegians carry 17 faults and the Germans and Australians carry 20 as Round Two begins. Rolf Grass was not going to get too carried away by his side’s good result today - “this is a Nations Cup, anything can happen and we are only halfway tonight,” he said, and his anchorman Steve Guerdat was also staying sensibly Swiss - “I feel confident for my team,” he said, “but tomorrow is another day and another course - let’s wait and see.”

And America’s McLain Ward expressed similar sentiments when he said “yeh, we just have to keeping chipping away here, take it one day at a time.”

2008 Olympic Show Jumping

Reigning Olympic individual gold medalist Rodrigo Pessoa handicaps the Olympic show jumping field, giving Germany the edge and deeming the U.S. worthy of silver.

I’m going to pick Germany for gold, and then the United States and then Great Britain.

The Germans have an outstanding team of riders this year—and they all have strong horses. Each of them has been performing well all season, and I think that the team is ready to erase the disappointing result from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. [They were stripped of their team gold medal (their third consecutive) after Ludger Beerbaum’s mount Goldfever tested positive for a forbidden substance and was eliminated. The team fell to bronze.]

For the U.S. team, you have two very experienced pairs. When it comes to events like this, you want a rider who knows his horse well, and McLain Ward knows Sapphire perfectly. They will try to peak on the right day, and they will be a strong possibility. Does he have the mettle to do it? I don’t know. But that’s really a combination that knows how to be ready on the right day.

Beezie Madden, of course, is an amazing rider, and talk about someone who knows how to get ready for the right day! That is one solid combination. Laura Kraut is a super rider, but her horse Cedric is still a little bit green and could be a little bit surprised. We don’t really know about Will Simpson yet. Will doesn’t have too much international experience. The horse also is pretty green, so he’s a little bit of a question mark, but I still put the team in second.

Great Britain looks pretty good—they’re my pick for team bronze. On that team you have a lot of experience between Michael and John Whitaker. This will be Tim Stockdale’s first championship, and the horse [Fresh Direct Corlato] is performing well. And then they’re taking a young rider, Ben Maher, for his first major championship, but he’s quite a good rider. So I think England could be close.

Canada could play a role as well—they’re not looking bad at all. The riders all have good international experience, and they could end up with a medal if everything goes right. With Eric Lamaze and Ian Millar, you have two very strong combinations, so they might get right up there.

The Dutch team was looking good, but with Albert Zoer and Okidoki off the team their chances have fallen some. [Zoer broke his leg in two places while training a young horse July 8, ending his Olympic bid.] Eurocommerce Berlin is a powerful horse with a good rider [Gerco Schröder] and has plenty of good experience, but he had a bad fall in Aachen (Germany) in the Grand Prix. I don’t know if that’s going to affect him at all. But we’ll see.

As for Brazil, we have three riders that have really good experience [Olympic veterans Bernardo Alves, Álvaro Affonso de Miranda Neto and Pessoa will join rising star Camila Mazza de Benedicto in Hong Kong.] We might lack a little bit in horsepower, but in 1996 and 2000 we had an inferior team and horses, and we came up and took third, so we’re always a team to watch out for.
Pessoa’s Strategy

You don’t have to prepare differently for the Olympics, but the horse has to be in very good physical condition because of the heat and the difficulty of the Games. They have to be physically very tough, but training-wise there’s nothing different to do, just follow the formula.

You want to go through the qualifier and the Nations Cup in a good way. You don’t absolutely have to jump only clean rounds; you just be ready on the day of the final and jump two clear rounds. Then if you can jump two clears, you’ll be very close to the podium.

There’s one thing that I don’t understand with the Olympic Games. Why do we jump normal, big, difficult grand prix all the time, and at the Olympics we have to jump bigger and wider? It’s so extreme—there’s never a jump-off with four or five in it—it’s only one horse who can mange to go double clear. I’ve never really understood that. But we’ll see how it goes this year.

The meteorological conditions in Hong Kong will be tough, but the conditions for the horses, the footing and stabling, will be quite nice. So we’ll see if weather will play a role or not for the competitors—I believe it will for some horses.

For individuals, it’s tricky. After the team competition, you start at zero on Sunday. When the class starts, it can be anyone’s day. There could be any one of 10 or 15 riders who could make it, maybe even more. I could give you 10 names who could win on the right day.

I’m picking the Germans Marco Kutscher and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum for gold and silver. Marco’s horse, Cornet Obolensky, has been jumping extre-mely well, and Marco is a solid rider. Overall, I think that he has the package that it takes to get the job done. Meredith does as well, but if I had to pick one to win, I’d take Marco. Meredith’s horse, Shutterfly, is secure, but he’s a little more on the spooky side. He’s the kind of horse that could be surprised with something.

For bronze, I was going to predict Zoer until his accident. But with him out I’m going to put Eric Lamaze as bronze with Hickstead. The horse is really secure, and Eric is very solid. And Eric’s hungry to take a big event like that.

But there are plenty of other names who we should add to the list—Ludger Beerbaum and his horse [All Inclusive NRW] have been performing really well the past couple of weeks. You can’t find a better rider to rise to the occasion on big moments like this. He has all the experience in the world.

Don’t forget about Jos Lansink from Belgium. He’s a consistent rider, and he’s always there on a big occasion. He’s definitely one you want to watch out for.

Ian Millar is a top jockey, and in the one-day competition [for an individual medal] he certainly has a card to play. I’m not sure if he has enough horsepower to get the job done, but he’s definitely a man to watch.
Christina Liebherr may have a good chance as an individual on L.B. No Mercy. But the rest of her Swiss
teammates are lacking horsepower.

I’m going to take Rufus to Hong Kong. He’s been going OK. I’ve been having some little issues with his bridle, but we’ve been making some changes and pursuing the right bridle. He’s had a lot of really good rounds, some clears, and a lot of fours. I hope we can turn that around and have good, consistent rounds in Hong Kong.

Rodrigo Pessoa

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Four-time Olympian Rodrigo Pessoa anchored the Brazilian show jumping team to bronze-medal finishes at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and earned the individual gold in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Aboard Baloubet du Rouet, Pessoa won an unprecedented three consecutive FEI World Cup Finals in 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 1998, he also added the World Championship to his résumé with victory at the World Equestrian Games (Italy). The 36-year-old trains with his father, Nelson Pessoa, on a farm outside Brussels, Belgium.

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Veteran show jumper Ian Millar has cleared almost every obstacle in a stellar career that now spans nine Olympic Games.

But he can’t clear the lump in his throat.

Last March, Lynn, Millar’s wife of 39 years, died of cancer after a lengthy illness. Millar is at the Beijing Games without her, but she’s not far from his thoughts. Ask him about her, and he looks as though he’s just been wounded.

Five months after her death, Millar, 61, is still uncomfortable talking about his grief. “Oh,” he said, clearly pained. “Difficult is an understatement.

“Our family doctor said to me that the earliest you’ll even begin to see things getting better is six months, and ‘I’ll bet you it’s closer to two years.’ ”

As the days dragged on, and Millar’s thoughts turned to the Olympics, where he has never won a medal, he came to understand the doctor’s wisdom. Perhaps, at six months, only the numbness disappears.

The Millars had had a whirlwind romance. Lynn Doran was a rider, too, based a few kilometres from the farm where Millar worked. After their third date in May, they decided to get married in September.

Lynn, who had a degree in nursing, had an interest in every aspect of show jumping: teaching, horse care, riding, breeding, training and buying and selling.

Lynn was a direct person and a shrewd horsewoman and buyer. Faith Berghuis, one of the owners of Millar’s famous horse, Big Ben, once called her the Rock of Gibraltar. She was the quiet rock behind Millar’s success.

“The marriages in this sport are very different,” Millar said. “We’re so close. All aspects of our lives are so totally intertwined.”

Doran’s father, Hugh, owned a construction firm. When Millar heard that he’d better get a job if he wanted to marry Lynn, he became a stockbroker, part of which involved spending three months on Wall Street in New York. They both worked through the week, but competed at show-jumping events on the weekends.

Money was scarce. Eventually, together, they bought a beat-up old farm that they called Millar Brooke near Perth, Ont. Now, it’s a showplace with its own equine hospital.

There, in March, Lynn died, with her family around her. Children Jonathon, 33, and Amy, 31, were by her side in the weeks leading up to her death. Ian had spent the winter at the winter show-jumping circuit in Florida. Lynn would not allow him to sacrifice the tour to be with her. Occasionally, he would fly home, then back to Florida. The family surrounded her like a net, ensuring she was never alone.

Millar was to have competed at a $75,000 Nations Cup in Florida in March, but cancelled and headed home as his wife became quite ill. In his absence, the event was dedicated to Lynn. Without Millar in the lineup, the Canadian team finished second, although they’d won the two previous years.Millar has hardly been home since. He’s immersed himself in work, teaching clinics for two weeks, heading to Europe for two weeks, home a week, off to Spruce Meadows in Calgary and onward.

But work is a release, and it was Lynn’s wish that he pursue his Olympic dream. Although he’s won back-to-back World Cup finals, nine medals at eight Pan American Games and ridden in six world championships, Millar has never won an Olympic medal.

Millar’s quest for a medal came closest with a fourth-place finish in the team events at the Olympics of 1984 and 1988. And he was tied for fifth place in the individual final before the final round at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when a high wind blew a fence down. Officials sounded a signal to stop him, but Millar’s mount, Dorincord, thought he was finished so close to the exit. Confused, he knocked down a couple of rails, and they finished 13th.

In his three Olympics with his famous mount, Big Ben, Millar finished 14th, 15th and 54th. In 1996, he was 47th.

“This is very important what we’re doing here,” Millar said of a Canadian team that has resurrected itself from the ashes of a couple of decades of dismal results. “Lynn would have wanted no interruption in that for sure. If I’d said forget it, Lynn would have been very disappointed with me. It’s not an option.”

And he wants to do it, too. He needs to do it.

“If I ever stopped, I don’t know where I’d ever start again,” Millar said. “So I’d better not stop. Don’t want to know. Got to keep going.”

Millar said he has at least one more Olympics in him. He wants to compete in London in 2012. And his fondest wish would be to compete on a team that included his son and daughter, who now have promising young mounts on the verge of becoming “everything,” he said.

The three of them rode on a team in 2000 at Spruce Meadows, with the fourth rider being Jill Henselwood, who considers Millar her mentor. It was like a family outing.

On Monday, the Canadian horses arrived in Hong Kong via Anchorage. The riders will soon follow. Millar will have an extra obstacle to clear.

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