Equestrian

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Great Britain’s riders have qualified safely for Friday’s jumping team final at the Paris Olympics.

The GB trio of Ben Maher, Harry Charles and Scott Brash finished third of the 10 qualifiers in Versailles.

Tokyo individual gold medallist Maher gave them the perfect start with a superb clear round on Dallas Vegas Batilly.

Maher had made a late decision to ride the mare in France rather than his regular mount Point Break.

Olympic debutant Charles had four penalties on Romeo 88 as did Brash on his horse Jefferson for a team total of eight penalties and a time of 227.79 seconds.

Qualifying was led by Germany (no penalties and 229.74), followed by the USA (six penalties and 227.57) with Belgium fourth (eight penalties and 231.52).

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Great Britain's Charlotte Fry has qualified for the dressage individual and team events at the Olympics.

Reigning world champion Fry and her stallion Glamourdale, finished third in Group E with a score of 78.913%.

The top two from each of the seven groups go through, along with the six next best scores.

Fry's team-mate Becky Moody had already qualified by winning her group aboard Jagerbomb on Tuesday, while seven-time Olympian Carl Hester also qualified among the six scores with his horse, Fame.

Team GB who are sitting in third in the team contest.

Great Britain remain top of the team eventing standings after the cross country despite a jumping penalty against Ros Canter drastically reducing their lead.

Team GB are looking to defend their Olympic title for the first time since 1972 and looked well placed to do so after a flawless run from Tom McEwen on JL Dublin.

That was followed by Laura Collett suffering only a 0.8 penalty on London 52, and while that saw her drop to second in the individual standings - 0.5 behind Germany's Michael Jung - the British team were some way clear of their nearest rivals.

However, Canter was then given 15 jumping penalties to drop from sixth to 24th in the individual and cut Great Britain's lead to 4.7 over France.

On Sunday evening, British Equestrian confirmed that Canter's penalties stood following a review.

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Italian rider Emiliano Portale has been eliminated from the Olympics after his horse was found to be bleeding from the mouth following the eventing dressage qualifiers.

A statement from the FEI read: “The horse, Future, ridden by athlete Emiliano Portale of Italy, was eliminated during the Eventing Dressage test after blood was found in the horse’s mouth during the post-competition check.

"Elimination under this rule does not imply there was any intention to hurt or harm the horse, but the FEI discipline rules have been put in place to ensure that horse welfare is protected at all times.”

It comes at a time when equestrian events at the Olympics are under intense scrutiny due to a number of controversies concerning animal welfare.

Brazilian rider Carlos Parro was given a warning by the FEI after animal charity Peta complained he was creating unnecessary discomfort to his horse Safira.

The horse had a hyperflexion of his neck and sometimes in that situation oxygen can be restricted.

Before the Games, former Olympic gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin was forced to withdraw from Paris 2024 after a video emerged of her mistreating a horse.

Harry Poole
BBC Sport journalist in Paris

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Laura Collett set an Olympic record on London 52 to help Great Britain top the standings after the dressage phase of the eventing competition.

Collett and London 52, who the 34-year-old has described as "the horse of a lifetime”, smashed the record for lowest dressage score with 17.5 penalties in a superb performance to move into gold medal position.

The record had been held by American David O'Connor, who scored 19.3 at Sydney 2000.

British team-mates Ros Canter and Tom McEwan placed sixth and 11th respectively to leave Team GB top of the team competition with a combined 66.70 penalties, which is also an Olympic record.

Germany ended the opening day second, with 74.10 penalties, ahead of New Zealand on 83.00.

Canter, on Lordships Graffalo, received 23.40 penalties while McEwan topped the early leaderboard with 25.80 penalties.

Cross-country, the second of the three disciplines in eventing, takes place on Saturday at Versailles, where the equestrian competition is taking place against the spectacular backdrop of the palace.

Collett, who nearly died in a fall in 2013, helped the British team win its first eventing team gold in 49 years at Tokyo 2020 alongside McEwen and Oliver Townend - doing so on London 52.