Annika Schleu: Germany’s favorite gold with tears on a stubborn horse

Status: 1:29 PM| Reading time: 4 minutes

DrThe drama happened before the beginning. Annika Schleu St. Boy’s horse didn’t want to go to the jumping track. She backed off, couldn’t make a move, always stubbornly backed up instead of moving on. The 31-year-old Berliner led the fourth of the five majors in the modern pentathlon. The dream of gold seemed to come true. But he exploded on this horse’s back.

In modern pentathlon, animals are provided by the organizer and then the athletes are drawn to compete. Schleu’s horse has already attracted attention for its stubbornness. Obviously, he felt uncomfortable in this course. To the best of my knowledge and belief, it should have been exchanged, even if only for the benefit of the animal. But this did not happen for reasons that were not fully understood. The vet gave the Olympic organizers his approval. For Schleu, that turned out to be a sporting fiasco.

Spurs led the horse to the wing to force him to start. Hit the hind legs with the whip again and again. Even then, tears of despair flowed down on her, and national coach Kim Reisner stood helpless and stunned behind the track fence. When Saint Boy pressed him, she applauded him as well. without effect.

You have 20 seconds before the start to set the mood for the horse. But Schleu and Brunner did not find each other. When she somehow managed to get him to move, the initial drama took on more tragic features with each hitch. A terrible scene happened to both the horse and the rider.

Then the horse turns back

The first four obstacles were overcome, hardly and without any real will on the part of the horse, which can be seen from it. At the fifth hurdle, Saint Boy started jumping, but broke in the middle and stopped. In the German camp, hands were thrown to faces in horror in the stands.

Chilio stayed in the saddle, but her horse passed the sixth hurdle. The national coach shouted at her student, “Persian.” Schleu made another attempt on the track, crying, devastated.

Upon trying again at the sixth hurdle, the horse refused again. Also in the seventh obstacle. If you refuse four times, you will be disqualified. This is what happened. Schleu was a degree. She was sad. Your dream of gold exploded at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It went from #1 to #31.

After the fiasco, the national team coach said in tears: “It was unfair, the horse had never left before. We could only change horses if it stopped four times beforehand. But it only stopped three times. That means we had to take that horse. The doctor said The vet The horse is fine. This was the last chance to change him and take a replacement horse. It went well when I rode. But the horse must have a problem in this yard. Because he doesn’t even want to run. It’s not Annika’s fault, the horse always wanted Go to the door.”

Reisner made it clear that there are no opportunities to protest. The rules do not provide for this. In their view, Schleu “only had to get through this competition and he would still be in the lead by four or five throws.” A totally unsuccessful trip and zero points in showjumping also ended Lena Schönborn’s second Olympic gold dreams after 2008.

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“Hardly anyone can sympathize with her better than me. It was the same situation as in Rio,” Schönborn, who was sitting in the stands, said of her long-term training partner’s bitter moments. With any other number of points, Anika wouldn’t have been able to get a medal.”

But as it were, after the last laser round, Britain’s Kate of France defeated Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania. The bronze went to Sarulta Kovacs of Hungary. Shiloh was 31 years old.