Horse racing: Tattenham corner - Olympics that went wrong for Hong Kong | Sport | The Observer
There must have been red faces at the Hong Kong Jockey Club during the Olympics when the show jumping stage of the men's Modern Pentathlon became a muddy farce.
Of the 36 riders who took part, all incurred penalty points and five failed to complete the course. British competitor Sam Weale went into the event in eleventh but despite putting in a round where his horse refused twice at the fourth obstacle he moved into third. The combination of rain-softened conditions, a raucous crowd in a cramped arena and fences too difficult to jump (they were lowered before the women's contest the next day) proved too much for the horses used - thoroughbreds loaned out by the HKJC whose names were changed for the day. The idea of each horse - drawn by lottery - being used twice during the event was quickly scrapped once it started to look as if some had never seen a fence before.
Not that the HKJC can be accused of cutting. They spent US$150million on facilities for the visitors and the stables had air-conditioning, water dispensers, padded floors and walls to prevent injury and most intriguingly - play rooms.
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31-08-2008, 11:06 AM #1
Olympics that went wrong for Hong Kong
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31-08-2008, 11:27 AM #2
umm...yeah...except that the equestrian portion of the modern pentathlon was in Beijing, not Hong Kong....only the horses came from Hong Kong, and they were racehorses, not showjumpers...does anyone check their facts?
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31-08-2008, 11:49 AM #3
I should have checked that before posting the article! Thanks for the "heads-up".
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31-08-2008, 09:18 PM #4
that last question was aimed more at the author of the article, not you...they give the impression that it took place in HK as well..
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02-09-2008, 01:04 PM #5
Reporters can't allow facts to get in the way of their message. Beijing, Hong Kong--what's the difference? The point is--well, I'm not sure what his point is. That HKJC spent a lot on the stables?
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02-09-2008, 01:15 PM #6
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02-09-2008, 10:33 PM #7
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04-09-2008, 12:06 PM #8
It's a really weird article. The article does state correctly that the horses were loaned by the HKJC for the event, and the use of thoroughbreds for a showjumping event would be considered unusual. It doesn't explicitly state that the event was hosted in Beijing, but neither states that it wasn't in Hong Kong either. The frequent use of Hong Kong and/or HK would lead the uninformed reader to believe the event took place in Hong Kong.
The piece then tails off with the amount of money the Jockey Club spent on stable facilities. This money was spent in Hong Kong, and from what I've heard the competitors and groups concerned with the horses were suitably impressed with the facilities. Adding this bit of information at the end also does not help distinguish the eventing in the pentathlon as 'not hosted in Hong Kong'.
Overall, this is either sloppy reporting or sloppy editing. The Observer has been going downhill for a while though...
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04-09-2008, 01:04 PM #9
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