Individual showjumping gold goes to Maher at Olympics

Maher finished first at the jump-off with no penalties followed by Peder Fredricson with silver and van der Vleuten with bronze. 

Only the top 30 riders progressed to the jumpoff for the Tokyo Olympic showjumping individual final at the Tokyo 2020 Games. There were shock departures after the individual qualifier, amongst them the 2012 Olympic gold medallist and current number three Steve Guerdat. 

Kent Farrington and Laura Kraut also failed to qualify for the jump-off, and the Olympic Team gold medallist from Rio 2016 Penelope Leprevost has also missed on the jump-off. Other riders as Edwina-Tops Alexander, current number two at the LGCT and Christian Kukuk of Germany missed out with four faults. 

The Table A, against the clock course with a height of 165cm has proven to be a tough test for riders as only six made it to the jump-off. This included Great Britain’s Ben Maher with Explosion W who ended up in the first place. Other riders included Henrik von Eckermann on King Edward, Malin Baryard-Johnsson with Indianna, Peder Fredrichson with All In, Daisuke Fukushima with Chanyon and Maikel van der Vleuten with Beauville. 

Brilliant show jumping performance of Ben Maher

Maher produced a brilliant round that secured him the gold during the jump-off. Together with Explosion W they not only delivered with no mistakes, but they finished the course in 37.85 seconds. He defended the title for Team GB following the footsteps of Nick Skelton, who won in Rio 2016 at the age of 58. 

Peder Fredricson was close to Maher with a time of 38.05 seconds but this was not good enough for the gold medal. Maikel van der Vleuten of the Netherlands finished in third position ahead of von Eckermann. 

Final results of the Individual Equestrian Jump-off at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

1. Ben Maher (GBR) with Explosion W. 37.85
2. Peder Fredricson (SWE) with All In. 38.02
3. Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) with Beauville Z. 38.90
4. Henrik von Eckermann (SWE)  with King Edward. 39.71
5. Malin Baryard-Johnsson (SWE) with Indiana. 40.76
6. Daisuke Fukushima (JPN) with Chanyon. 43.76

For more results on the equestrian sports at the Olympics:

German Team wins Dressage gold

Germany wins gold and silver at dressage individual as Charlotte Dujardin wins bronze

Great Britain win Team Eventing gold

First female eventing Olympic gold for Krajewski

Image credit to FEI