The individual show jumping at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place between 26 September and 2 October at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. It featured a significant change to the competition format from prior years. The event was open to men and women. There were 74 competitors from 24 nations. Each nation could have up to 4 riders, up from 3 in previous years (though only a maximum of 3 could advance to the final). The event was won by Pierre Durand Jr. of France, the nation's first victory in individual jumping since 1964 and fourth overall—most of any nation, moving out of a tie with Italy at three. Silver went to Greg Best of the United States, with bronze to Karsten Huck of West Germany.

Background

This was the 18th 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. The team and individual events remained separated, as they had been starting in 1968.

Five of the top 10 riders from the 1984 Games returned: gold medalist Joseph Fargis of the United States, fourth-place finisher Mario Deslauriers of Canada, sixth-place finisher Luis Álvarez de Cervera of Spain, seventh-place finisher Frédéric Cottier of France, and tenth-place finisher Luis Astolfi of Spain. The field was considered open, with top riders (including 1986 World Champion Gail Greenough of Canada and 1987 World Cup winner Katharine Burdsall of the United States) not competing.

Colombia and Liechtenstein each made their debut in the event. France competed for the 16th time, most of any nation.

Competition format

The competition underwent a significant format change, adding a two-round qualifying round before the two-round final. The course was 770 metres long, with jumps up to 1.60 metres high, a 2.00 metre oxer, and a 4.60 metre water jump.

In the qualifying round, each pair performed in two rounds. There was no elimination between the two rounds of the qualifying. Positive scoring, rather than the fault system, was used for the qualifying round. The total score for the two rounds in qualifying was used to determined advancement to the final. A maximum of 50% of the pairs could advance (37 of the 74 starters), with each nation limited to three riders advancing.

The final also consisted of two rounds. This time, however, there was a cut between the two rounds; only the top 20 advanced from the first round of the final to the second. Both rounds of the final used the typical fault system of scoring. The combined score for both rounds determined the placement. A jump-off would be used if necessary to break ties for medal positions; other ties would not be broken.

Schedule

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Monday, 26 September 1988 10:00 Qualifying round 1Qualifying round 2 Sunday, 2 October 1988 8:00 Final round 1Final round 2

Results

Bourdy (France), Brinkmann (West Germany), and Pyrah (Great Britain) did not advance due to the limit of three pairs per nation. Bourdy was tied for 8th in the qualifying round; Cottier and Durand had lower scores than him but advanced instead. Durand, 18th overall and 4th among French riders in qualifying, ran both rounds of the final without any jumping penalties and finished with a total of 1.25 faults from time to win the gold medal. Huck had led the first round of the final, with a completely clean run (0 faults) to Durand's 0.25 time faults, and went last in the second round of the final knowing that Durand had reached the 1.25 total. Huck nearly made the second round clean as well, but hit the next-to-last rail to receive 4 faults—tied with Best for second, who had had 4 in the first round but was clean in the second. In the jump-off, both Huck and Best had 4 faults again; the silver medal went to the American based on time in the jump-off.

Rank Rider Horse Nation Qualifying Final Jump-off Round 1 Round 2 Total Round 1 Round 2 Total Faults Time Pierre Durand Jr. Jappeloup 59.50 50.50 110.00 0.25 1.00 1.25colspan=2 Greg Best Gem Twist 69.50 63.50 133.00 4.00 0.00 4.00 4.00 45.70 Karsten Huck Nepornuk 8 48.00 70.00 118.00 0.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 54.75 4 Anne Kursinski Starman 69.50 52.00 121.50 4.00 4.00 8.00colspan=2 rowspan=71 David Broome Countryman 48.00 41.00 89.00 4.00 4.00 8.00 6 Jaime Azcárraga Chin Chin 58.00 60.00 118.00 4.00 4.25 8.25 7 Jan Tops Doreen 55.00 45.00 100.00 8.00 4.00 12.00 Nick Skelton Apollo 41.50 56.00 97.50 4.00 8.00 12.00 Joe Fargis Mill Pearl 69.50 63.50 133.00 4.00 8.00 12.00 Franke Sloothaak Walzerkonig 19 48.00 56.00 104.00 4.00 8.00 12.00 Markus Fuchs Shandor II 22.50 45.00 67.50 4.00 8.00 12.00 Thomas Fuchs Dollar Girl 63.50 70.00 133.50 4.00 8.00 12.00 Jos Lansink Felix 43.50 72.00 115.50 4.00 8.00 12.00 14 Joe Túri Vital 34.50 63.50 98.00 4.25 8.00 12.25 15 Ian Millar Big Ben 69.50 56.00 125.50 0.75 12.25 13.00 16 Rob Ehrens Sunrise 69.50 56.00 125.50 8.00 8.00 16.00 Michel Robert La Fayette 63.50 73.50 137.00 4.00 12.00 16.00 18 Juan García Tirol 61.50 29.00 90.50 8.00 8.25 16.25 19 Dirk Hafemeister Orchidee 76 69.50 70.00 139.50 4.00 14.00 18.00 20 Jack Doyle Hardly 30.50 50.50 81.00 8.00 24.75 32.75 21 Lisa Carlsen Kahlua 69.50 73.50 143.00 4.00 22 Gerry Mullins Glendalough 55.00 27.00 82.00 8.50 did not advance Pedro Sánchez Nuit Des Tourelle 59.50 29.00 88.50 8.50 did not advance 24 Vitor Teixeira Going 46.00 67.50 113.50 8.75 did not advance 25 André Johannpeter Heartbreaker 29.00 39.00 68.00 9.50 did not advance 26 Jean-Claude Van Geenberghe Piquet 69.50 63.50 133.00 12.00 did not advance Mark Todd Bago 55.00 33.00 88.00 12.00 did not advance 28 George Sanna Schnaps 37.00 49.00 86.00 13.25 did not advance 29 Rodney Brown Slinky 55.00 40.00 95.00 13.50 did not advance 30 Mario Deslauriers Box Car Willie 61.50 56.00 117.50 15.75 did not advance 31 Frédéric Cottier Flambeauc 50.00 61.00 111.00 16.00 did not advance 32 Philippe Guerdat Lanciano II 25.50 48.00 73.50 23.75 did not advance 33 Manuel da Costa Jalisco B 69.50 25.00 94.50 24.00 did not advance Luis Álvarez de Cervera Mirage Mexicain 40.00 33.00 73.00 24.00 did not advance 35 Boris Boor Monaco F 41.50 45.00 86.50 24.75 did not advance 36 Manuel Torres Zalme 32.00 35.50 67.50 35.75 did not advance 37 Hugo Simon Gipsy Lady 34.50 66.00 100.50 did not advance 38 Hubert Bourdy Morgat 69.50 56.00 125.50 did not advance 39 Wolfgang Brinkmann Pedro 39.00 67.50 106.50 did not advance 40 Malcolm Pyrah Anglezarke 52.00 26.00 78.00 did not advance 41 Wout-Jan van der Schans Treffer 51.00 15.00 66.00 did not advance 42 Yoshihiro Nakano El Lute 34.50 29.00 63.50 did not advance 43 Luis Astolfi Coreven Steepers 17.00 45.00 62.00 did not advance 44 Thomas Batliner Foxstone 45.00 17.00 62.00 did not advance 45 Kim Seung-hwan Forever 30.50 31.00 61.50 did not advance 46 Anatoly Timoshenko Pinguin 18.00 42.00 60.00 did not advance Ove Hansen Sancerre 38.00 22.00 60.00 did not advance 48 Maurice Beatson Jeferson Junior 43.50 16.00 59.50 did not advance 49 John Anderson Farmer 0.00 56.00 56.00 did not advance 50 Juan Carlos García Buenos Aires 12.00 38.00 50.00 did not advance 51 Shuichi Toki Purplex 25.50 23.00 48.50 did not advance 52 Ryuzo Okuno Challenger No. 1 10.00 37.00 47.00 did not advance 53 Jeff McVean Whisper Grey 0.00 45.00 45.00 did not advance 54 Gerardo Tazzer Peregrine 22.50 21.00 43.50 did not advance 55 Harvey Wilson Crosby 22.50 19.50 42.00 did not advance 56 Lisa Jacquin For The Moment 16.00 24.00 40.00 did not advance 57 Nam Gwan-U Opal 3.00 35.50 38.50 did not advance 58 André Salah Sakakini Tric Trac 2 0.00 33.00 33.00 did not advance 59 Alberto Carmona The Dubliner 11.00 18.00 29.00 did not advance 60 Takao Sawai Milkyway 8.00 19.50 27.50 did not advance 61 Alejandro Orózco Eros 15.00 0.00 15.00 did not advance 62 Mun Hyeon-jin Amadeus 0.00 14.00 14.00 did not advance 63 Mun Eun-jin Makmillion 9.00 0.00 9.00 did not advance 64 Gregory McDermott Mr. Shrimpton 55.00 did not advance 65 Alberto Rivera Rey A 34.50 did not advance 66 Paulo Stewart Platon 27.50 did not advance 67 Walter Gabathuler Jogger 22.50 did not advance 68 Paul Darragh For Sure 19.50 did not advance John Ledingham Kilcoltrim 19.50 did not advance 70 John Cottle Ups & Downs 13.50 did not advance 71 Raimundas Udrakis Dekoratsia 7.00 did not advance 72 Christina Johannpeter Societe 6.00 did not advance 73 Vyacheslav Chukanov Zritel 5.00 did not advance 74 Sergejs Šakurovs Final 4.00 did not advance

References