The individual show jumping in equestrian at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London was held at the Wembley Stadium on 14 August. The competition consisted of a single round of jumping. In the case of a tie in points, a jump-off was arranged. The jump-off had no time limit, however, the time taken to complete the jump-off was used as a tie-breaker.Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, The (1948). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, p. 343. LA84 Foundation. Retrieved 4 September 2016. The points from the individual competition were also used in the team competition. There were 44 competitors from 15 nations, with nations able to send up to three riders each. The event was won by Humberto Mariles of Mexico, with his teammate Rubén Uriza taking silver at the top of a three-way jump-off for second place. Mariles' win was Mexico's first victory in the event. Jean-François d'Orgeix of France earned that nation's first individual jumping medal since 1928 with his bronze.
Background
This was the eighth appearance of the event, which had first been held at the 1900 Summer Olympics and has been held at every Summer Olympics at which equestrian sports have been featured (that is, excluding 1896, 1904, and 1908). It is the oldest event on the current programme, the only one that was held in 1900.
None of the top 10 riders from the pre-war 1936 competition returned.
Brazil, Denmark, Finland, and Ireland each made their debut in the event. France and Sweden both competed for the seventh time, tied for the most of any nation; Sweden had missed only the inaugural 1900 competition, while France missed the individual jumping in 1932.
Competition format
The team and individual jumping competitions used the same scores. A single round of jumping was held.
The jumping test featured 16 obstacles (19 total jumps) over 870 metres. Points were lost for faults (including elimination for the third refusal on the course) and for exceeding the time limit. Ties for medals were determined by jump-off; other ties were not broken. In the jump-off, there was no time limit but instead the time was used as a tie-breaker if pairs had the same number of faults.
Schedule
All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Date Time Round Saturday, 14 August 1948 13:30 Final
Results
Mariles was the last rider. Three riders had already finished with 8 faults apiece. Only two teams (Spain and Great Britain) had finished; with Mariles' teammates both having completed the course, he needed only finish the course to earn a team bronze. A score under 39 would earn team silver for Mexico; under 28.50, team gold. Those marks would turn out to be well more than Mariles needed; he had the best run of anyone with only 4 jumping penalties (knocking down the 15th jump) and an over-time penalty of 2.25, for a total of 6.25 penalties and the gold medal.Official Report, p. 338.
Rank Rider Horse NationPenalties Notes Jump Time Total Humberto Mariles Arete 4 2.25 6.25 2 Rubén Uriza Harvey 8 0 8 Silver jump-off Jean-François d'Orgeix Sucre de Pomme 8 0 8 Silver jump-off Franklin Wing Democrat 8 0 8 Silver jump-off 5 Jaime García Bizarro 12 0 12 Eric Sörensen Blatunga 12 0 12 7 Max Fresson Decametre 16 0 16 Harry Llewellyn Foxhunter 16 0 16 Harry Nicoll Kilgeddin 16 0 16 10 José Navarro Morenés Quorum 20 0 20 Alberto Valdés Chihuahua 20 0 20 Francisco Pontes Itaguai 20 0 20 13 Greger Lewenhaupt Orkan 19 1.75 20.75 14 Dan Corry Tramore Bay 20 1.25 21.25 15 Rafael Campos Santa Fe 24 0 24 16 Marcelino Gavilán Forajido 24 0.50 24.50 17 Fred Ahern Aherlow 23 2.50 25.50 18 Henrique Callado Xerez 23 3 26 19 Arthur Carr Monty 35 0 35 20 Joachim Gruppelaar Random Harvest 36 0 36 21 John Russell Air Mail 25 13.25 38.25 22 João Barrento Alcoa 32 10.50 42.50 23 Tauno Rissanen Viser 56 0 56 — Néstor Alvarado Mineral Eliminated Pascual Pistarini Canguro Eliminated Eloy de Menezes Sabu Eliminated Ruben Ribeiro Bon Soir Eliminated Otto Mønsted Acthon Please Eliminated Jeppe Johannes Ladegaard-Mikkelsen Atom Eliminated Torben Tryde Attila Eliminated Veikko Vartiainen Pontus Eliminated Pierre de Maupeou d'Ableiges Nankin Eliminated Jan de Bruine Romanichel Eliminated Jaap Rijks Master Eliminated Jack Lewis Lough Neagh Eliminated Alessandro, Count Bettoni Cazzago Uranio II Eliminated Gerardo Conforti Furori Eliminated Piero D'Inzeo Briacone Eliminated Hélder Martins Optus Eliminated Karl-Åke Hultberg Ismed Eliminated Selim Çakir Gitchluv Eliminated Kudret Kasar Siyok Eliminated Eyüp Öncü Yildiz Eliminated Hank Frierson Rascal Eliminated
Silver medal jump-off
Rank Rider Horse Nation Penalties Time Rubén Uriza Harvey 0 49.1 Jean-François d'Orgeix Sucre de Pomme 4 38.9 4 Franklin Wing Democrat 4 40.1
References