‘The horse felt great, I just have to ride better’: world number one Daniel Deusser reflects on Olympic individual showjumping final performance

World number one Daniel Deusser blamed himself for the two rails that cost him a place in the Olympic showjumping individual jump-off today (Wednesday, 4 August).

The German rider and his electric mare, the aptly named Killer Queen, impressed with their firey clear in Tuesday’s qualifying round at the Tokyo Olympics.

The pair came into the final, looking hungry for a medal, with the 11-year-old by Eldorado Vd Zeshoek showing her huge scope over Santiago Valera’s first-round course. But a pole at the first part of the double at 11A and another rail at the cherry tree oxer at 13 – the fence that also ended Martin Fuch’s hopes of individual Olympic glory – resulted in a total of eight faults.

“We have a very difficult course here; the course designer really asked whatever he could ask,” said Daniel.

“[Killer Queen] started very carefully the first part of the course. After the triple combination I thought over the line with the water to the vertical that I had a good forward rhythm and I gave her enough confidence. But to the last combination, I was just a little bit far off, everything was a little bit long.”

He added: “It’s disappointing, but at the end, the horse felt great, I just have to ride better.”

When asked if his disappointment was connected to his world ranking, Daniel replied: “No, it’s disappointing anyway. Not because of my world ranking, because actually the horse did what she had to do. I’m sure if I come a little bit closer to the triple bar, she would have had a different jump there, and probably she would jump also better at the second last, and I would still be in the race.

“So I don’t think it has anything to do with the world ranking or the pressure of the world ranking.”

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