Scott Brash, Harry Charles and Ben Maher win jumping team gold for Great Britain
The trio had qualified for the team jumping final in third place.
Ben Maher, Scott Brash and Harry Charles won Olympic gold for Great Britain in the team jumping final.
The trio qualified for the event in third place behind Germany and the USA, but with the scores reset to zero, Maher jumped clear with one time penalty, before Charles added a perfect round and Brash jumped clear, with one time penalty which was good enough for gold.
Maher won individual gold in Tokyo three years ago, while both he and Brash were members of the team that secured gold in 2012. It is a first Olympic medal for Charles, whose father Peter was also in the London squad.
Britain led all the way through the competition to see off silver medallists the USA, with France third after Julien Epaillard had one fence down in the final round.
After completing his clear round aboard Romeo 88, Charles said: “I’m pretty speechless, I need a good few hours to reflect. That was probably the best round of my life at the biggest moment in my career so far.
“To have me be good and Romeo come through like that on this stage and at this moment – it’s taken a lot to get to this position and I’m really proud of him.”
Charles was riding with a strapped arm after suffering a fracture four weeks ago, which left his visiting friends on tenterhooks as to whether he would be fit to ride.
He said: “All my friends are here in Great Britain shirts and they were holding a big flag with Romeo’s name on it, so I promised I would look up to them today. I saw them so I gave them a little wave.
“They’re friends from home who I went to school with and they’re my biggest supporters and they’ve come a long way, well not all that far actually. They booked this trip a year in advance and when I broke my arm they were worried they weren’t going to get refunded on the Airbnb!
“I happy they all made it and it’s nice to do it with them there as they’ve taken such an interest in the sport.”
