Wednesday 18th August

The drive to the airport is uneventful and when we park there seems to be even more union flags than there had been yesterday. The girls get onto the bus whilst I park the car. As we queue to enter the stadium, we are being told that we can’t take any food into the stadium and the security people are checking bags. Although the venue guides had all said that we couldn’t bring food into the venues, we haven’t had problems before!

Eventing – Individual Jumping Qualifier and Team Final

As we arrive at the equestrian stadium we discover that William Fox-Pitt’s horse, Tamarillo, has failed the veterinary inspection and had to withdraw. As the leasing British rider this is a big blow to the chances that we will see a British medal. Individually, Phillipa Funnel is now seventh and Leslie Law is tenth, so there will need to be a lot of mistakes to

In the team event, USA are now third on 129.6 points with GB (135.0) narrowly ahead of Australia (135.4).

We take our seats in the baking sun. We’ll need lots of sunscreen today. The first riders to go are those not involved in the team competition. None of them are greatly involved in the individual competition. We have great seats near the final jump. It seems to be a simple plank but it’s causing all sorts of problems to the early riders.

The three lowest scoring riders for each team contribute to the overall team score. But, with both Britain and France having had a rider withdraw, they have little room for manouver.

Jeanette Brakewell is the highest scoring British rider, her four faults takes her total to 57.8. The first scoring rider is Mary King, but her 8 faults take her total to 56 and the teams total to 143.0. With two riders left to go Germany lead on 121.8, with France second on 129.4 and USA on 134.6. It looks like the last two British riders will need to go clear to have a chance of a medal.

Leslie Law does it although the plank on the final fence rocks, it stays in place. The American Darren Chiacchia gets eight faults and there is now only 0.4 between the USA and GB. The programme shows that the German Ingrid Klimke is supposed to be next, but it is the Frenchman Jean Teulere who goes round with four time faults and a fence down.

With the last riders still to go on each team, Germany seem assured of Gold, but there are only two fences between second France and the GB team in fourth. Philippa Funnell is the last British rider and amazingly goes clear to give us a chance of seeing the Union Flag raised in the arena. The last American is Kimberly Severson, who takes down a rail on the last lightweight fence and also has a time penalty, thus giving the Bronze Medal to the GB team.

A clear round by Bettina Hoy, gives the Gold Medal to Germany. Two faults by Frenchman Nicolas Touzaint would give GB silver, but the individual leader has one fence down and secures second place for his team.

Going into the individual jumping phase, two British riders are just out of the medal positions.

There is a break now before the start of the individual jumping phase. The queues at the food outlets are huge as everyone is hungry after the excitement. We take the opportunity to get some pictures of the equestrian centre, but our nationalistic attire is attracting much attention and we have our photographs taken by quite a few of the other spectators. When the food queues die down, Beth and I head for the pizza stand. There is a Brazilian competitor there, talking to the Brazilian supporters, so Beth persuades him to pose for a picture.

Our mobile phones displayed text messages from home. We had been seen on the television coverage.

As we are returning to our seats we hear that there is some sort of controversy. It is not clear what the problem is but it seems to be something to do with timing and Philippa Funnell. We wonder if there was a problem with the timing on the cross-country as she had scored a lot of timing faults on the course, but when we return to our seats the scoreboard is displaying the same results as earlier.

Eventing – Individual Jumping Final

Only 25 qualifiers for the second jumping phase, going in reverse order with the fences having been changed and the finish now on the other side of the stadium. Coming into the last five, only one rider, Amy Tryon of the USA, had managed a clear round. But Britain’s Leslie Law on his gray Sheer L'Eau cleared the course in time. Pippa Funnell and Primmore's Pride, were next and pinged off one rail to move to fifth, behind her team-mate.

American Kimberly Vinoski-Severson on Winsome Adante had one pole down and moved out of the medal positions, guaranteeing at least another Bronze for Leslie Law. German Bettina Hoy and Ringwood Cockatoo went round with four faults and a further two time penalties. Not enough to deprive her of silver.

Unbelievably, the clear leader, the Frenchman Nicolas Touzaint on Galan de Sauvagere knocked down a pole at the first jump, and then they had another one, and another one. Touzaint knocked down a total of four poles and had three time penalties to move from first position into ninth.

The stadium emptied as Princess Anne, in her capacity as an IOC Member, presented the medals to the winners. Firstly the team medals, with Britan collecting the bronze and then Leslie Law collected the Silver medal for the individual event. As we cheered the British riders on their laps of honour. We watch the German flag being raised in the centre position, but at least we’ve seen a couple of British medals.