Riders of Australia were still in huge contention for their medals halfway at the cross-country phase; however disaster hit when Sam Griffiths on the Happy Times struck first and after that Clayton redericks on the Bendigo fell and slipped, both were eliminating from the event. That put Australia with the bare minimum 3 riders for the final show jumping phase. An upset Griffiths said when he slipped that, his horse fell on the plane and lost his back end.
After that the next thing he knew that he was on the ground. He is absolutely gutted, although that is sport. The going was quite tough so he didn’t want to place big studs in. That's perhaps why he fell. Australians were unable to act to explain why Fredericks and Griffiths went to ground. Section manager Brett Mace said that, why they are disappointed is because they were riding quite well. They were in time; they would be jumping all the fences splendidly. It was obviously a case of horse slipping and moreover there is not a lot the riders can do anything about that - it was not terrible riding.
Veteran Andrew Hoy showed the skill of 6 previous Olympic appearances and lots of international competitions in the past 30 years by clocking a hard time to stable the ship. Andrew Hoy, at 53 and is the oldest elite riders, who survived a near fall to look after his young horse Rutherglen in the course in a admirable time , 18 seconds over penalty-free limit of 10.03. The ride put Andrew Hoy in 6th position, 2 behind his younger partner Chris Burton, set bar high early in the day with a blazing round of 9.46 mins 17 seconds within the limit.
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