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Chinese Equestrian Rider Alex Hua Tian Faces Setback at Paris Olympics

Chinese Equestrian Rider Alex Hua Tian Faces Setback at Paris Olympics

Paris, July 29, 2024, The Europe Today: Chinese equestrian rider Alex Hua Tian encountered a significant setback during the cross-country phase of the eventing competition at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, resulting in a penalty of 20.6 points. This, combined with his dressage penalties from Saturday, brought Hua Tian’s total penalty score to 42.6 points, causing his ranking to drop dramatically from 3rd to 32nd place.

The event, held under clear skies at the historic Palace of Versailles, attracted a large crowd. The cross-country phase was marked by several incidents, including falls by competitors from Germany, Ecuador, and Portugal, which led to their elimination from the competition.

Hua Tian’s run was marred by a controversial penalty. Broadcast footage showed a judge unexpectedly appearing in front of obstacle 21B. In response, Hua Tian and his horse Chocs made a sidestep to the left before clearing the obstacle. The horse brushed against a flag on the left side of the obstacle, resulting in a 15-point penalty.

China immediately lodged a protest with event organizers, but the International Equestrian Federation has yet to issue an official response. Jia Dapeng, leader of China’s equestrian team, told reporters that the team has “reviewed the footage with the technical representatives and expressed our stance.” He added that the team will nonetheless respect the “rules and results from the federation.”

Hua Tian explained that his horse took a light step to the left before jumping right. “I think this happened because, unfortunately, there was one of the jump judges running a little bit on the landing side behind. And I think that really distracted Chocs,” he said.

In a separate incident, the other Chinese rider, Sun Huadong, withdrew from the competition due to his horse Lady suffering from swelling in her left foreleg.

Germany’s Michael Jung topped the individual leaderboard with a total of 17.80 penalty points, surpassing Britain’s Laura Collett, who incurred 0.8 time penalties in the cross-country phase, finishing with 18.30 penalty points.

The eventing competition will continue on Monday with the show jumping phase.