Burto jumps into Olympic history
We are usually strictly all about the Jumping but given that Chris Burton has already proved himself as part of the Australian Jumping family we couldn’t pass on the opportunity of celebrating his silver medal victory yesterday at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The man of the moment was part of the team which just over a year ago helped Australia secure a place in the Jumping Teams competition at the Paris Olympics and is currently named as a reserve for the Australian Jumping Team who will be competing here in Paris in only a few days time.
In an atmosphere that was so electric and at a venue that was beyond stunning, Burton, along with his Belgian Warmblood gelding Shadow Man, came into today’s Jumping phase in third place, out of a large field of 64 starters and held his nerve to ride almost perfectly over the two rounds this afternoon. Despite a rail down earlier in the day, the German pair of Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH came into the jumping phase with a big enough lead that saw him manage to hang on to take the gold by just 0.60 penalties.
Burton and Shadow Man, who he has only paired with since March, were magnificent across the three days of competition. Burton, who is competing at his third Olympics and finished fifth in Rio in the Individual event, which contributed to Australia’s bronze medal winning team effort, put in one of the strongest performances on the day. In his first jumping round this morning, they left all the rails in place but were ever so slightly outside the allowed time, adding just 0.40 penalties to finish on 22.40. His position was strengthened by the two riders ahead of him taking a rail, which saw him advance to second place, just 0.60 penalties from the lead.
The top 25 individual riders from the teams competition were then invited back to battle it out for individual gold. The cream in France is no different to the cream around the world. It always rises to the top. As each of the top four came out at the end of the round, they each produced clears that didn’t allow any of them to make ground on any of the others and Burton stayed in the silver medal position. The crowd of 20,000 spectators surrounding the arena watched on in total silence as Jung, the last competitor on course, held his nerve to complete a perfect round and take the gold for Germany.
At the press conference, Burton highlighted what a wonderful show it had been. He described the unique relationship that he and Shadow Man have, having only been together a few months. He described how the selectors told him that they wanted to see more out of the combination, as they had only competed a few times together, so they went to Mill Street and won a CCIO4* competition and he was now disappointed that the 6-month ride he had on Shadow Man was coming to an end. As for the future, Burton said that he had a few plans.and that he, his wife and family would soon be returning to Australia to live, having left our shores in 2011.
Burton, however, was not the only Australian to perform on the day. Shane Rose (also seen out and about in Australia at many Jumping events) was part of the team that secured a bronze medal in Rio 2016, along with Christopher Burton and they were back together in the same team in Paris 2024. The issues that Shane has had to deal with this year just to make the team have been well documented and it has been a super effort to overcome them. Shane, at his fourth Olympics and his trusty steed Virgil, at just his second Olympics, came into today’s Jumping phase in 23rd place and in the Jumping today, they had a great round. Just a single rail down and 0.40 time penalties added 4.40 to their score, which advanced their total score to 41.80 jumping them up one position to 22nd securing a place in the top 25 final. In the final, Rose showed his class, piloting Virgil around the course clear to finish on 41.80 penalties promoting them to 20th place in the final individual standings. We suspect that Shane might be a little disappointed with this result, however, Australia should be infinitely proud of his efforts both over the last three days and in fact the whole of 2024.
If Australia went into the Games with high hopes for our Equestrian team to produce a team result near the top of the standings, we should feel even prouder of our final result and the reason we finished 15th out of 16 competing teams.
An injury to Gelding Don Quidam saw the third member of our team, Kevin McNab retire half-way through the Cross-Country Phase. This combination, which were part of the Silver Medal winning team from Tokyo 2020, according to reports, seemed to be going well but McNab took no chances when he sensed that something was wrong with Don Quidam and pulled up between fences. Unfortunately, such a withdrawal incurred 200 penalties which effectively put Australia out of the team competition. We should feel satisfied that one of our competitors, when the stakes could not have been higher, elevated his concerns for the welfare of his horse above both his and the team’s ambitions. (It should be noted that the 200 penalties for his withdrawal and the 20 penalties applied for adding a substitute on day three contributed 220 penalties to our team total of 328.30 and that the bronze medal team incurred a total of 115.80 penalties)
With Don Quidam incurring a soft tissue injury (from which we understand he will fully recover), the team reserve combination of Shenae Lowings and her OTT Thoroughbred gelding Bold Venture were invited to make their Olympic debut. They had a very solid round in the Jumping today. Just two rails down and a further 1.20 time penalties gave them a score of 9.20, adding just a little to the team score.
So to summarise our Eventing team efforts at the games, we can say they are a team full of heroes:
Christopher Burton is a hero. It is enough simply to say that he is the individual Eventing silver medalist.
Shane Rose is a hero. He made it to the Games and despite overcoming everything that has been thrown against him, he managed a top 20 individual finish
Kevin McNab is a hero. He put the welfare of his horse above all other considerations including personal and team glory.
Shenae Lowings is a hero. She is now an Olympian at the age of just 27.
What a competition that was for Australia and what a privilege it was to be there to capture all the action. We are now even more exited than ever to bring the jumping action to you from Versailles, with the competition kicking off on Thursday.
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