Elsenham showjumper Ben Maher gets third Olympic questrian gold medal as Great Britain win team jumping final in Paris
Ben Maher won his third Olympic equestrian gold medal by helping Great Britain win the jumping team final in Paris on Friday (August 2).
The Elsenham rider and colleagues Harry Charles and Scott Brash, who were not favourites to win, triumphed in a nerve-shredding contest at Chateau de Versailles.
Brash could not afford to knock any fences down in the last ride of the event in order to claim top spot and kept his cool on board Jefferson, with a time penalty proving insignificant.
USA finished second and France were third. It was Team GB’s ninth gold and 25th medal overall at the Games.
Maher, 41, was a gold medallist at London 2012 when, on board Triple X III, he helped Great Britain win their first team jumping gold medal for 60 years. He then added an individual gold to his collection at Tokyo 2020 riding Explosion W.
The triumph in Paris saw him and Brash riding with the son of London 2012 team-mate Peter Charles, with Harry Charles competing on Romeo 88.
Maher had been due to ride Point Break in France, but due to the stallion’s form post-travel, there was a last-minute change and he rode Dallas Vegas Batilly instead.
They had a clear round in qualifying and were up first in the final, going clear and incurring a single time penalty point after going fractionally over the allotted time in 79.65sec.
Harry Charles went second for Team GB and went clear and within the time in 78.28sec.
Brash was the last rider into the arena and knew if he knocked down one fence they would have to settle for silver, while knocking two down would have seen them finish outside the medals.
And he stayed calm to go clear in a time of 79.54sec, with the time penalty point not mattering in the final reckoning.
Team GB came top with a total time of 237.47 and two penalties. Runners-up USA clocked 229.90 overall but incurred four penalties while third-placed France’s total time was 238.12 and they amassed seven penalties.
Maher’s 2012 exploits meant a postbox in Elsenham was painted gold - it now has a crocheted showjumper on top of it.