Youth Olympic Games – Day 10 Update

Cambridge rider Jake Lambert has the potential to reach the top after a strong finish to his show jumping competition on the penultimate day of competition in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore today.
The 16 year old dropped one rail on the second day of competition where only two riders produced clear rounds, to finish in 21st place in the 30 rider competition.
His chance to get a second medal, following his silver in the team event where he twice jumped clear, was lost in the first round when his rein got caught under a stirrup after his horse got spooked, although his outstanding horsemanship kept the loss to three rails down.
Lambert eased his six year old mount Le Lucky over the tougher course today, dropping the rail in an otherwise faultless display where Uruguay’s Marcelo Chirico took out the gold medal in a jump off against Colombia’s Mario Gamboa.
Coach Catherine Cameron, one of the country’s best show jumpers, believes Lambert is a real prospect for the future.
“He has huge potential. He has huge natural talent. The more training he gets and continued work on the basics, he has everything going for him if he can fine tune. Of course he has to get the horse power,” Cameron said.
“I don’t see why the Olympics is not a realistic goal for Jake. I think 2016 or after that if he got a dream run.
“He won’t be sitting on superstar horses. He will have to make them himself and get a bit of luck along the way. So much depends on the horse power. He is such a nice boy, mature and has everything going for him – who knows someone might find him a nice horse which will make it easier.”
Lambert said the Youth Olympic experience has opened his eyes to the opportunities and he has learned much from his biggest competition stage in his young career.
“It was a wicked competition and it finished on a good note which I was looking for,” Lambert said.
“He jumped a lot bigger. He felt a bit stroppy this morning but he worked in well. He was a bit unlucky at the wall which was all that stood between him and a clear. That’s competition for you. Other than that he’s been a wicked horse.
“I will go back and re-evaluate and start to put a team together for this season. I need to start jumping bigger tracks with better horses. Finding that horse power is a key and then getting the experience which this Youth Olympics has been part of. It will come in time.
“It has been my main goal to get here to the Youth Olympics. It is the highest competition where we can get at the moment as a young rider. Many of the top riders here will progress through to the big Olympics and I hope I can be one of them.”
Also in action today is Jack Collin son and Elise Beavis in the final three fleet races in sailing ahead of tomorrow’s medal round, Kevin Wu and Julia Wu in the team competition in table tennis and tonight the junior girls hockey team take on Korea in the bronze medal match.
Results, day 10:
Equestrian, show jumping: Marcelo Chirico (URU)Links Hot Gossip, 0 faults, 1; Mario Gamboa (COL) LH Titan, 0 faults, 2 (in jump-off); Dalma Palhas (KSA) Flash Top Hat, 4 faults, 3 (in 5 way jump-off). Also: Jake Lambert (NZL) Le Lucky, 16 faults, 21.