Equestrian continued with its second day of competition on Saturday as riders took to the cross-country course to compete in the second of the three eventing disciplines. 

With overall eventing scores calculated as a sum of a rider’s score across all three days—dressage, cross-country and jumping—consistency is key to putting together both an individual and team medal performance. Several riders were able to maintain or improve their standings on day two while the field saw several major shake-ups as riders stumbled on the long course.

Read below to see which riders were able to go the distance in cross-country, and who came up short.

Great Britain defended its position at the top of the field on Day 1, putting itself into strong position to win a gold medal on Monday. Like Saturday, Tom McEwen rode first for the British, recording the day’s first perfect score. He was followed by Laura Collett, who continued her impressive performance with a strong score of 0.8. Rosalind Canter struggled on the final leg for Great Britain, picking up 15 points in jumping penalties, but it wasn’t enough to knock the British team off stride.

Germany, the competition’s other gold medal contender, was shockingly knocked out from team contention after Christoph Wahler fell from his horse in the middle leg. Despite a perfect score from Michael Jung and a strong 4.8 from Julia Krajewski, Wahler’s 200 penalty points mean that Germany will no longer be eligible for a team medal. 

France made the move into second place after Germany’s elimination, led by Karim Florent Laghouag’s perfect score. The host nation will have to overcome a 4.7-point deficit to the British to contest the gold medal. Japan will enter the final day of competition on track for a bronze medal finish after perfect scores from Oiwa Yoshiaki and Kazuma Tomoto helped the Japanese jump New Zealand for third place.

The United States struggled on Day 2, falling to ninth place after leadoff rider Caroline Pamukcu picked up 32 points.

RESULTS

While Germany was eliminated from the team event, Jung took the lead in the individual eventing competition with a perfect score on the cross-country course. He will enter Day 3 with a combined score of 17.8, putting him a half point above Collett, who fell to second place. The two will be in close contention for the individual title, which will be decided by the jumping competition on Monday. If Jung wins, it will be his third Olympic individual eventing title.

Alex Hua Tian (CHE) stumbled in his attempt for the individual bronze after struggling on the cross-country course. After entering Sunday’s action tied for third, he picked up 20.6 points and fell to 32, putting him outside medal contention. Australian Christopher Burton maintained his spot in third after putting together a perfect run, leaving him on target to contend for the individual bronze. He will face his biggest challenge from Felix Vogg, who enters the final day just a tenth behind Burton.

Boyd Martin had the best cross-country run for the United States with a score of 1.6 and will enter day three as the highest ranked U.S. rider in seventeenth.

RESULTS