Late rails end Martin Fuchs' hopes in Olympic showjumping individual final

Martin Fuchs ( SUI) riding Clooney 51 in the Jumping Individual Final for the Olympic Jumping Competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games held at Equestrian Park in Setagaya-ku in Tokyo in Japan between the 23rd July and 8th August 2021

(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

Reigning European champions Martin Fuchs and Clooney 52 will not be adding a medal from the Olympic showjumping individual final to their collection after finishing on eight faults in the first round.

The pair were foot perfect over the first 12 obstacles in Santiago Varela’s testing Tokyo Olympic course, but clipped the front rail of the 1.55m Sakura (cherry blossom) oxer at 13 and the last fence – a teetering 1.66m upright.

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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.

‘The feeling I had makes the disappointment even bigger’: late rails end Olympic individual title hopes for Martin Fuchs and Clooney 51

“I had a really good feeling throughout the course. He was good to handle, very nice to ride,” said Martin.

The Swiss world number two, who took individual silver with Luigi Baleri’s 15-year-old Cornet Obolensky gelding at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, added the way the horse felt for most of the course is what makes the “disappointment even bigger”.

“He jumped the third last fence very careful, very backwards. I landed and I didn’t see the five strides to the second last, so I decided quickly to do the six strides, but didn’t execute them properly enough. We got too close to the second last fence and had the rail down,” he said.

“Then I was just like, ‘let’s go as fast as we can to the last fence so maybe be the fastest four faults’, which also didn’t work out.”

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