Youth Olympic Equestrian: Caroline Chew finishes joint-16th in Individual Jumping Round A

Story by Wong Hong Yong/Red Sports. Photos by Low Sze Sen/Red Sports

Singapore Turf Club Riding Centre, Sunday, August 22, 2010 — Singapore’s Caroline Chew finished her individual Jumping Round A in joint-16th place. She finished in a time of 77.62 seconds, and chalked up eight penalty points in the process.

Nine riders finished the round in joint-first place with no penalty points. They are Guilherme Foroni (Brazil), Marcelo Chirico (Uruguay), Thomas McDermott (Australia), Mohamed Abdalla (Egypt), Timur Patarov (Kazakhstan), Dominique Shone (Canada), Samantha McIntosh (South Africa), Wojciech Dahlke (Poland) and Mario Gamboa (Colombia).

Caroline started off her run rather smoothly as she cleared the first six obstacles with ease. However, just when there was the possibility that she would be able to replicate her flawless showing at the team Jumping event with Team Asia, Gautineau could not clear the seventh when his back hoof hit the obstacle.

It was then all clear for Caroline until obstacle 12, the final hurdle before the finish. A similar situation occurred, and cost her another four-point penalty.

She ended the day in joint-16th place. When asked how the condition of the horse was, and how she felt about her jumps, Caroline said, “The weather was a little too hot and he (Gautineau) was struggling a bit during the warm ups. This was just an average run and I could do better.”

When asked what caused the hitting of the obstacles, she explained, “I was going too fast for number seven, and I didn’t pull him back in time. As for number 12, I was just unlucky.”

The displays were not far off from each other, and this promises an exciting finale on Tuesday’s Individual Jump round B.