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Published: September 8th 2008
First competitor of the day
Mark Todd of New Zealand on 'Gandalf' on the first part of Jump 5 (Five Colored Lake)Craig and I chose to get tickets for just one of the disciplines for the 3-day event - the cross country. It was a fabulous day out, and the first Olympic event of our trip. After finding out how to get there via public transport, the whole process worked excessively smoothly. The cross country course was around a golf course at the Beas River Country Club, north of Hong Kong. We were on the first train of the morning, caught one of the many double-decker shuttle buses to the country club, breezed through security and were delighted in receiving our free plastic ponchos! Neither Craig nor myself had paid any attention to the weather forecast which was for showers all morning. Well, it is fair to say that the plastic ponchos were as much of a blessing as a curse. Yes, it was raining but it was also very hot so one was getting very wet anyway. My poncho spent most of the day acting as a cover for my camera and tripod!
With so many riders to see, we treated the morning like I would have done a professional golf tournament. We decided to find a jump we liked and
stay there for about 15 riders then move to another etc with the idea of seeing most of the course over the 4 hours we would be in attendance.
After asking some Aussies who had walked the course the previous day where they thought the most difficult jump sequence would be, we chose to plant ourselves at the first of the water jumps (jumps 5 and 6). Because we had arrived so early, we found a front row spot where we could take in each of these jumps.
I took an excessive number of photographs - it was just too easy - and aren't you lucky I cannot be bothered loading ALL of them to bore you with? The selection on this page tries to show a variety of jumps and a variety of riding styles too!
The major personal adventure of the day for me was losing Craig very early on. We had agreed to split up for a few minutes and then meet at a designated jump. After 20 minutes, I lost patience and sought out the next water jump, which was where we had both wanted to head to next. After spending time at
these and several other jumps and not spotting Craig, I realised I needed to actually do something as we had not discussed a plan should we be separated. In ordinary circumstances, this would not have been an issue - except my mobile phone's global roaming was not activated! In the end, one of the lovely volunteers sent Craig a text message letting him know where I was. In addition to forcing me to sit down and wait in the comfort of their administration office whilst this was happening, the young man insisted a hug was the only form of thank you he required. The volunteers are a fantastic part of the Olympic experience.
After finally finding Craig, we managed to stick together for the rest of the morning. Whilst I saw one runaway horse and a few refusals, the only real injuries incurred were to personal pride. This was a great outcome for the sport but probably not for the media as they didn't get to show a series of nasty falls as they so often do.
At the end of the morning, all spectators were allowed to walk the course which Craig and I did in part.
We stood in a ditch in front of one jump to see just how high and how wide the jump was, we watched silly humans walking though the ponds at the water jumps (why would you do that?), and wandered the course inspecting just how cut up the turf was after 70 riders had passed through.
Our next event was dressage. Well, it is fair to say I did not have a fine appreciation of this discipline before I went to Hong Kong and I can't say my opinion has changed in the positive direction after 3 evenings of watching the best in the world compete. I must also mention that we did have tickets for 4 nights of dressage but decided, as we were enjoying dinner at the Temple Street night market in Kowloon, that we could afford to miss just one night!
Once again, the organisation for the dressage and show jumping was exceptional. We caught the train to University Station, jumped on a shuttle bus, had a 20 minute maximum wait for entry and all the staff were exceptionally sweet.
The seats we had allocated were all at the north end of the stadium.
For this first dressage event, we sat in our allocated seats for the duration. However, the following night Craig decided to try his luck in another stand that offered a better view and would let us see the entire arena. Perfect! And for all but the final of the individual dressage, we moved to these 'premium' seats each night with little fuss - and even wound up sitting amongst the Dutch dressage team for the team jumping final!
The highlight for me was the Team Jumping Final. After watching each individual tackle an interesting course, the team scores for the USA and Canada were tied so a jump-off followed. The course was shortened and the stakes were high. Unfortunately, the first rider for Canada did not enjoy a clear round and all the Americans did, resulting in a gold medal for the USA. The American gentleman seated in front of us was the breeder of one of those US horses so at least we felt some pride for him in the victory.
The atmosphere at Sha Tin was a little odd. Amongst the locals, there were plenty of German, Dutch, American, Canadian, Norwegian and Aussie supporters in the
Aussie Clayton Fredericks
On 'Ben Along Time' approaching the first water jump stands. However, the locals seemed more impressed with the nightly parade of the Fuwa (mascots) than the actual Olympic sport taking place before their eyes. There were plenty of pictures of the arena, and the flame, but they seemed happy to leave early in the evening and not stick it out until the end of the night- even when medal ceremonies were on.
Finally, a couple of the quirky things about our nights at Sha Tin. Several nights we received ‘gifts’ on arrival including Fuwa flags, cardboard binoculars, plastic fans, and of course, more ponchos (although it did not rain any night we were there). The other interesting observation relates to the food stalls. What do Asians eat at major sporting events? Not meat pies and buckets of hot chips, that’s for sure. There were hot dogs (but definitely a pork-based German sausage), potato crisps, sandwiches, popcorn and a nightly hot food special - which unfortunately was sold out each night before Craig got there - he always got stuck with the hot dog!
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