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Olympic Games

William Fox-Pitt Holds on to the Lead After the Dressage Phase of Eventing at the 2016 Olympics



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With the dressage phase of three-day eventing completed today at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the top of the leaderboard looks much the same as it did yesterday. William Fox-Pitt of Great Britain and Christopher Burton of Australia held on to the top two places. Mathieu Lemoine of France moved into third place. Ingrid Klimke of Germany moved into fourth, just ahead of her formidable teammate, reigning Olympic gold medalist Michael Jung.

Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice turned in a solid test today to move into 15th place, making them the top Americans on the leaderboard. Lauren Kieffer and Veronica also competed for the U.S. today; they are currently tied for 33rd just ahead of teammate Boyd Martin. Clark Montgomery of the U.S. is now ranked 24th.

But the rankings are only part of the story. Scores are extremely tight on the top half of the leaderboard, meaning a few time faults during tomorrow’s cross-country could cause huge changes in the standings. With a course that is reportedly quite technical and challenging, it’s likely that we’ll see significant shuffling in the rankings before the end of the day tomorrow.

For the team standings, Germany currently holds a 0.2 lead over second-placed France. The U.S. team is tied with New Zealand in sixth place.

Equestrian competition continues tomorrow with the cross-country phase starting at 9:00 a.m. ET. For U.S.-based viewers, coverage of cross-country is scheduled to be included in Olympic broadcasts from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on the USA network. You’ll also be able to watch online at NBCOlympics.com if you have access to the live stream—it requires a cable or satellite account login. Here’s more on how to watch the equestrian competition from the Rio Olympics.

Leslie Potter

Leslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky. Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.

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