EQUESTRIAN: DENIS LYNCH kept his medal hopes alive with another brilliant round of jumping on Flaminia Straumann's Lantinus in the second individual jumping qualifier at Sha Tin yesterday.
As on Friday, the Tipperary-born rider picked up a single time penalty but otherwise it was a copybook round with the 10-year-old gelding looking spot-on for the bigger challenge ahead today when the action once again gets under way at 19.15 local time.
Lynch was the first competitor to jump clear over a clever track built by Leopoldo Palacios of Venezuela and American Steve Stephens who caught out a lot of horses with the water.
The reigning world champion Jos Lansink was next into the arena with Cumano and they too were clear of jumping penalties with just one for time.
The first double clear came towards the end of the first team session from Sweden's Rolf-Goran Bengtsson on Ninja and this was matched by the first member of the American team to jump, Mclain Ward with Sapphire, who had also completed on a zero score on Friday.
Australia's Edwina Alexander and Itor du Chateau improved their individual standing with a good clear as did the world number three, Canada's Eric Lamaze on Hickstead and the current Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa with Rufus. Others to fall slightly foul of the clock were The Netherlands' Marc Houtzager with Opium and the Gerry Mullins-trained Tony Andre Hansen on Camiro.
The top eight teams qualified for today's third session of jumping headed by Switzerland and the USA on 12 penalties followed by Sweden on 13. Canada share fourth with Britain whose final team member John Whitaker didn't get to jump yesterday as Peppermill was a late withdrawal.
In dressage, Germany's Isabell Werth holds a narrow lead heading into tomorrow's concluding round, the Kur, which will decide the individual medal positions.
Riding Satchmo, she had a costly error near the end of Saturday's Grand Prix special test which left the combination on a score of 75.200, just ahead of The Netherlands' Anky van Grunsven who achieved a mark of 74.960 with Salinero.
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