King home with cross country clear for Team GB

Monday, July 30, 2012
3:17 PM

Mary King and Imperial Cavalier kept Team GB in the running for a gold medal after a clear round on the Greenwich Park cross country course. She put them in the lead after two riders after her time was amended and went into the lead as an individual.

It was an ‘edge of the seat’ experience as King battled to keep the exuberant Imperial Cavalier in order over the twisting and undulating course and she had to call on all her experience to negotiate the testing lines of the picturesque course which has the city of London as its backdrop.

Held up for almost half an hour before the start due to a fall on the course, King, at 51 the Team GB’s senior female athlete, was also stopped half way round, but fortunately after the complex second water jump and at the bottom of a hill. She had massive support from the home crowd all the way round and spectators included the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and the Duchess of Cornwall with the chairman of LOCOG Lord Coe. Such was the popularity of the sport that Mary King was trending worldwide on Twitter just before her round.

She incurred just 5.20 time penalties as she crossed the line but that was without the adjustment due to being stopped on the course. After that had been taken into account King went into the lead. Team pathfinder Nicola Wilson on Oppostion Buzz had nipped round the course early on for another great clear. She was later quoted as saying that her horse ‘had thought all his birthdays and Christmasses had come at once, he enjoyed it so much.”