Olympic Eventing Gold to Jung, France

France claimed team gold and Germany's Michael Jung took his second successive individual title as Olympic Eventing drew to a close at Deodoro Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro Aug. 9.

American Boyd Martin and off-track Thoroughbred Blackfoot Mystery struggled in the individual jumping final, dropping three rails and falling from seventh to a final placing of 16th. Teammate Phillip Dutton followed his splendid cross-country run with another strong performance in individual jumping to secure the bronze medal. 

The strong finish aboard Mighty Nice thrilled Dutton.

"I wasn't actually expecting to medal today," Dutton told Federation Equestre International officials. "I was pretty happy with fourth. But now I'm pretty ecstatic about third."

Martin and Blackfoot Mystery excelled on the difficult cross-country course, leaping into sixth place Monday, but did not fare as well in dressage or jumping.

Jung matched the record set by New Zealand's Mark Todd at Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 when making it a back-to-back double of individual Olympic Eventing golds. And, also like Todd, he rode the same horse that carried him to both team and individual glory in London four years ago, Sam.

In a cliff-hanger of a team contest it came down to the last four into the arena to decide the team result, and it was the defending champions from Germany who claimed silver, with Australia slipping from the overnight lead to take the bronze.

The 12-fence track tested the turning skills of horses that took on one of the toughest Olympic eventing cross-country tracks of all time Monday. But most were jumping fresh and well again Tuesday and the depth of the four French horses was key.