Nicholson's fall could prove costly for sport

TVNZ

OUT: New Zealand's hopes for an early Olympic medal took a tumble when Andrew Nicholson fell out of his saddle and the eventing team out of contention.

Relevant offers

Equestrian

Ireland's Olympic boss fed up with doping rep Doping casts shadow over equestrian events Dim ending for NZ leading lights NZ's accidental hero still defying odds Webby the last man standing as fences fall Another fledgling combination aim to impress Kiwi reserve gets show jumping call-up No show for top jumper as injury pains sore Sorbas Minderhoud leads individual dressage Ecstatic Todd eyes the future

Andrew Nicholson's late tumble in the cross-country phase of the Olympic three-day event could cost his country more than a medal chance: it probably cost his sport a great deal of money.

Equestrian was one of those sports overlooked by Sparc when it came up with its top nine targeted sports.

As a result the New Zealand Equestrian Federation joined the queue of sports making a case for any funding they could get their hands on.

This Olympic campaign has been put together on what NZEF chief executive Jim Ellis calls "buttons": a total of $525,000 which mostly goes to high performance coaching and support.

If New Zealand could have managed a medal in the three-day event, which looked highly improbable ahead of the show jumping phase early this morning (NZ time), Ellis estimated he could have justifiably asked Sparc for a lot more funding in the lead-up to the London 2012 games.

So he, more than anyone, knows how costly Nicholson's fall has been.

"The more it's been analysed, those tactics were right and there's no criticism of Andrew at all," Ellis said.

He was referring to Nicholson's bat out of hell ride on Lord Killinghurst, who was flying through a demanding and technical course before getting wrong-footed at the penultimate fence, sending Nicholson tumbling onto the rain-sodden turf at the Beas River venue.

"We were a very close margin away from being in the medal hunt and he could have been lying first, second or third overnight.

"Fundamentally it was a fantastic ride and probably as good a ride as he's ever done on that horse on a tough and technical course. So yes we're disappointed but it could have been very different," Ellis said.

"None of out feeling is that we got it wrong. We had our five best riders, they all had good mounts, the horses were as fit as they've ever been and tactically we got it right until that slip but those are the margins we deal with."

Despite the eventing disaster, Ellis is quick to point out that not all equestrians hopes lay with Mark Todd, Nicholson and co.

Starting Friday, he was optimistic the show jumping team could exceed all expectations and finish in the top-eight in the team event, which would be a significant improvement on the 12th place in Athens.

A good result from the jumping team could offset some of the disappointment in the eventing team and in turn help Ellis' case when he presents to Sparc.

Ideally, he'd like to see equestrian double its funding to around $1m but is realistic about how that rates on a global scale.

"If we could double our funding it would be significant and substantial but on a global scale it wouldn't; you would need 10 to 20 times that to make an impact on the world stage."

- © Fairfax NZ News