Johnstone just misses medal

It was close but no cigar again for the New Zealand equestrian team this afternoon.

New Zealand narrowly had failed to get among the medals when the team competition finished earlier, placing fourth.

In the afternoon there were hopes that one of the New Zealand trio, probably Clarke Johnstone, might squeak into the medals in the individual section.

As it transpired, Johnstone, riding Balmoral Sensation, was sixth, Mark Todd on Leonidas II was seventh and Jonelle Price on Faerie Dianimo was 17^th.

Johnstone went clear in the morning round in the team competition, but in the afternoon hit two rails and incurred eight points, which pushed his final score to 59.30. If he’d managed to go clear again, he would have snuck into third place.

Todd, who had a horror round in the morning, bounced back supremely well with a clear round and lifted himself back to a respectable seventh with 62 points, not bad at all for someone aged 60, but not what he was hoping for at the start of the day.

Price knocked down two rails in her afternoon round and finished with 73.50 points.

The individual competition was won by German Michael Jung, who was in a class of his own aboard Sam FBW, and incurred just 40.90 points.

For Johnstone, the day was doubly disappointing – he could so easily have won medals in both the team and individual competitions.

“We were all left feeling empty this morning,” he said. “Mark just had a bit of a horror. No-one blamed him for happened. It was one of those things, but disappointing.”

With regard to so narrowly missing a medal in the individual competition, Johnstone said it just wasn’t to be.

“I had two rails down. They are the first rails that my horse has ever hit in a three-day event. So I’m feeling pretty devastated when I reflect on it.”