Olympics 2012: Dujardin Does It! More Gold for Britain

Olympics 2012: Dujardin Does It! More Gold for Britain

On an edge of the seat afternoon when it seemed that each rider came out and raised the bar, Charlotte Dujardin, a relative newcomer to the highest level of the sport, showed that she and Valegro really belong there.

Her first Grand Prix was in a little less that two years ago. Carl Hester, who himself finished just out of the medals in 5th place, matched her with the horse that really could beat the world. Hester bought both Uthopia and Valegro as youngsters to bring along and sell, but has managed to keep both of them, despite huge money offers, to compete for Britain for these Olympics. It has been a truly fairy tale finish.

The Netherland's Adelinde Cornelissen and her wonderful Parzival were the only combination from outside Britain to earn an individual medal - her outstanding performance with only a minor mistake coming out of an early piaffe with perhaps a slightly tight neck at times, was still able to produce a powerful test.

Britain wasn't disappointed in the bronze medal performance by Laura Bechtolsheimer and her amazing 'Alf' Mistral Hojris. They only had a small mistake in the two time changes and otherwise their performance was expressive and fluid.

Helen Langehanenberg put in a very solid peformance for a 4th place finish, the highest of the three Germans who rode in the individual finals. For Holland, Anky van Grunsven, one of the top medal winders in dressage of all time, finished in 6th with an 82.000% score with two time gold medal winner Salinero.

Steffen Peters of the U.S. had a very disappointing final, finishing on a score of 77.428 % in 17th place. Peters and Ravel had a lovely fluid test but had three or four mistakes which were perhaps quite heavily penalized.

Rk	Bib	Rider	Horse	+
1	226	DUJARDIN Charlotte	VALEGRO	+
2	236	CORNELISSEN Adelinde	PARZIVAL	+
3	224	BECHTOLSHEIMER Laura	MISTRAL HOJRIS	+
4	229	LANGEHANENBERG Helen	DAMON HILL	+
5	227	HESTER Carl	UTHOPIA	+
6	239	van GRUNSVEN Anky	SALINERO	+
7	230	SCHNEIDER Dorothee	DIVA ROYAL	+
8	231	SPREHE Kristina	DESPERADOS	+
9	237	GAL Edward	UNDERCOVER	+
10	219	MUNOZ DIAZ Juan Manuel	FUEGO	+
11	248	VILHELMSON SILFVEN Tinne	DON AURIELLO	+
12	216	ZU SAYN - WITTGENSTEIN Nathalie	DIGBY	+
13	205	MAX-THEURER Victoria	AUGUSTIN	+
14	246	KITTEL Patrik	SCANDIC	+
15	233	TRUPPA Valentina	EREMO DEL CASTEGNO	+
16	245	CARVALHO Goncalo	RUBI	+
17	254	PETERS Steffen	RAVEL	+
18	213	KASPRZAK Anna	DONNPERIGNON	+