Olympic qualification for Canada’s jumpers will have to wait another year. The girls and guys just couldn’t swing it this time. The odds were against them, of course. Only three clear rounds would have moved them up to qualifying position and punctured Australia’s balloon. The movement among the top ten was limited to two places, three at most (Switzerland dropping from first to fourth). The only team that wasn’t in the top six after Thursday’s first round that clinched that coveted qualifying place was Australia, to Ireland’s chagrin.
Eric’s decision to not to jump was completely logical. He told us yesterday he did not intend on competing in the individual if he had got through. “I am here for the team,” he said. As he couldn’t advance the team’s position, there was no reason to show Chacco Kid the course. Speaking of which, I have not heard one single negative comment uttered about Alan Wade’s courses to date.
I think our chef de mission, Jon Garner, summed up Canada’s WEG experience quite positively, so I’m going to borrow his words. “I think this week has shown we have a really good core group of riders and horses with potential. At the end of the day, whichever horse Eric rides is going to perform. You can always count on him. It looked to me that Darko just ran out of gas a little bit. That one rail begot another which begot another. How they have performed this week is nothing short of admirable. Kara has gotten better and better and at her age to march into this ring and be able to perform shows me that there is a rider, clearly, with huge potential for the future. And with Mario it got better and what a way to finish. We thought coming in that maybe it was a year too early for Bardolina, but she’s grown into the job; she’s risen to it. Looking forward to Tokyo I’m actually pretty bullish on it, I have to say.”