The Tokyo 2020 Non Athletics Thread

[Grassmarket]

Kate French in the position she likes best in the run/shoot, got a bit to make up but has all the others in sight.

[alfie]

Have to feel for that German lass : out in front and then she simply could not get her horse to do what she wanted... Think she probably panicked a bit at first and of course that just made it worse. The one questionable part of the MP : if you draw the wrong horse you can be blown right away. Cruel luck.

From a biased GB point of view I guess it gives Kate French a much better chance...she is within 15 points of the lead now and I think she's a rather good runner...

[RunUnlimited]

And the horse riding part of Modern Pentathlon takes down the world #1 from Hungary.... the horse refused a jump twice and the rider only just avoided getting dq'd by trying to go over the jump a third time.

[RunUnlimited]

Natalya Coyle from Ireland, who was 4th in the standings, also gets a dud horse, which refused several of the jumps.... At the end of the ride, Coyle went to the side lines and got off the horse as quickly as possible, barely able to hide her disgust at her rotten luck.

[Taffy2]

Wow this german rider must be fuming

[RunUnlimited]

Wow this german rider must be fuming

Oh man, I'm just seeing that German ride now.... holy crap! This is tragic. How terrible for her!

How did that horse even get into the selection at all? It looked like a barely feral horse that had only had been ridden on for the first time the previous day....

[RunUnlimited]

I'd heard it was bad previously, but thought that it was just a case of the horse refusing a few jumps and costing Scheu some points... But when the camera switched to her about to start her ride and she was CRYING before they'd begun, then it dawned on me what a bad situation she was in... which was then confirmed by the horse walking backwards for several minutes before Scheu eventually got it going, and it just got worse and worse from there.

It was clear that Scheu knew that horse, no matter how much "bonding" they did before the ride, was not going to cooperate at all.

[alfie]

I hear they do in fact have the option of switching to a "reserve" horse. Makes you wonder why she didn't do so after witnessing the poorly named Saint Boy performing earlier ?

[RunUnlimited]

The thing is Alfie, Saint Boy was selected because it was a "good" jumping horse, according to the modern pentathlon expert the BBC had on to explain yesterday... and that the reserve horse is a reserve for a reason. So if you're a rider wanting to perhaps change a horse at the last moment, you're taking a big gamble upon whether the reserve horse is better than what you've got, which is not guaranteed.
Scheu was just in a totally unfortunate position.

[carterhatch]

absolutely marvelous performance in the Modern Pen, Kate French, you have made my morning... (the Lithuanian can run !!!)

[MysteryBrick]

Absolutely epic.

[Occasional Hope]

Brilliant performance.

[alfie]

Kate French wins quite decisively !

I saw that World Cup event she won a while back and to be honest I thought as long as she was in touch coming to the laser run she would be too good for the rest. She can run.

Don't know how that unfortunate German lass who was wrecked by her horse could have done but that is kind of academic now. Well done Kate 👍

[RunUnlimited]

Brilliant from Kate French!

[RunUnlimited]

Poor, poor Scheu of Germany, finished down in 30th, after leading by a huge margin before the horse riding totally ruined her chances.

[Dundee42]

Great run by Kate French.

[MysteryBrick]

18/18/18 Gold/Silver/Bronze for GB at the moment. Nice and symmetrical.

[RunUnlimited]

Not quite MysteryBrick You're forgetting the bronze medal Jack Carlin won in the individual sprint in track cycling.

[MysteryBrick]

Dammit, he's ruined my symmetry...

[trickstat]

I do think 20-20-20 represents a reasonable 'par' and, like a golfer, we might not hit it every time.

[RunUnlimited]

Great Britain are now just 10 medals short of matching their total in Rio... I'm frankly amazed that we've done so well. 18 golds now too.

[alfie]

Re that MP : the Lithuanian lass ran brilliantly. French set a new Olympic record , winning by 15 points ; but it was actually her PB swim , 14 points better than the silver medallist , that was decisive.

Of course I suspect she had a little up her sleeve had she been challenged in the run to the line : but it shows the importance of each discipline - especially your weaker events.

[marra]

Mystery - which is why, in its infinite wisdom, the IOC is considering completely revamping the format for 2024....makes you shake your head.

[carterhatch]

marra, what changes? Adding skateboarding?

[Grassmarket]

It’s going to be two heats & a final, each of which takes about 90 minutes. No-one quite knows how it will work, the format will premiere next season.

[marra]

Germans,french and even the Italians miles behind uk with their 200 million population. Up the EU...right up😄😄😄

Considering how critical (and wrong) you've been through the fortnight about our medal chances in Tokyo, pretty ballsy move to come out with this kind of "flag waving" now...