Dressed to thrill! Dujardin claims second gold of the Games
By MIKE DICKSON
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Land of Hope and Glory gently wafted across Greenwich Park as Charlotte Dujardin walked, cantered and trotted her way into the ranks of Britain’s finest female Olympians with a staggering display of nerve on the horse she calls Blueberry.
It had been cleverly segued with the theme from The Great Escape, which was what a somewhat aggrieved Dutch team felt they had witnessed as she edged out their own Adelinde Cornelissen for a second gold within three days.
Look, I've got another one: Charlotte Dujardin celebrates winning her second medal
By adding yesterday’s individual dressage title to the team event won on Tuesday, Dujardin, virtually unknown outside the cognoscenti before this week, elevated herself into the most distinguished company.
Only Rebecca Adlington, Laura Trott and Dame Kelly Holmes have picked up a brace of golds at the same Games, and all that from a discipline that had never even produced an Olympic medal of any kind prior to this year.
Not bad for a girl who left school at 16 and was only able to afford her first grand prix horse due to a small inheritance left by her grandmother, which her mother then diverted towards her daughter’s ambitions.
These were utterly fulfilled in this kind of horse-and-human version of Strictly Come Dancing with a performance of flair that just about convinced the seven judges that she was the best of the 18 finalists.
Dujardin, seeded as the last rider out because of her top-ranking display in the team event, had to endure an agonising wait before she and the officially named Valegro stepped out before the 23,000-strong crowd at this stunning venue.
By then she knew that an Olympic record would be required to secure middle spot on the podium, as Cornelissen on Parzival had lifted the bar intimidatingly high with a hoof-perfect test that had secured an average mark of 88.196 per cent.
And in technical terms she was unable to match that, a slight slip in transition from passage to piaffe raising the hopes of her main rival that the British team’s gold rush in the equestrian events would be halted at the last.
Yet it was felt that her quirky mix of moves to very British themes that also included Live and Let Die and the chiming of Big Ben was so artistically outstanding that it more than compensated for any mechanical shortcomings in her freestyle routine. An overall 90.089 was awarded, lifted by an enormous 93.429 for artistic merit.
With Laura Bechtolsheimer securing the bronze, two places ahead of Dujardin’s mentor Carl Hester in fifth, it was the event which signalled GB’s 50th medal of the Games, and in another sport a bat might have been raised towards the Olympic Stadium just visible in the distance.
As ever the victor was keen to give credit to her horse Valegro who, while sounding vaguely like a dodgy old British Leyland product of the seventies, is a Rolls- Royce among animals. So much so that if the mooted decision to sell him is carried through by joint owners Hester and Roly Luard is likely to attract bids in the region of £10million.
‘He did feel very tired, he has been here since last Sunday and is only 10 years old but he gave me his all,’ said Dujardin. ‘It didn’t bother me when I saw the scores of Adelinde, I just knew I had to go out there and do my best.
Hands up who won two gold medals: Charlotte Dujardin was the star of the show at Greenwich on Thursday
First up: Laura Bechtolsheimer waves to the crowd after being awarded her bronze medal
Third: Laura Bechtolsheimer on Mistral Hojris
‘I suppose with that slight mistake it was the great escape in the end — I made it when he got a bit tense and misunderstood me, but I wouldn’t have cared what medal I had got because my horse gave me everything.
‘At an event in Germany I realised the organisers had The Great Escape playing as background music to my test and I just thought it’s really cool, I want that. It is fantastic to ride to.’
In contrast to Bechtolsheimer, raised in Britain by wealthy German parents, Dujardin comes from a more modest background and has had to scrape for everything en route to the top of her sport.
‘My parents don’t have a lot of money and it was only when my mum’s mum died that we could buy Fernandez, my first grand prix horse. Before that we had to produce ponies and make something out of them because we never had the money for top ones. Luckily, Mum was very good at spotting a cheap one that was also good.
‘No decision has been made about selling Valegro so I’m not going to worry about it. If they do then I’m going to miss him like mad but it’s out of my hands.’
Maarten van der Heijden, the Dutch performance director, felt that his top rider could have been treated more generously by the judges, although they are evenly spread among nations and included one each from the most competitive nations Holland, Britain and Germany.
‘We are a bit disappointed about the result, I thought we deserved the gold,’ he said. ‘Adelinde did an incredible test. After Valegro made those mistakes at the end we thought we had won the gold.
‘Maybe the judges thought that Valegro’s performance was softer and lighter — and we are in England.’
Regardless, it was only the third time the 90 per cent mark has ever been broken in this event, and it rounded off a remarkable equestrian event for Britain which has seen a final haul of three golds, a silver and a bronze.
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