Australia’s Christopher Burton has claimed a silver medal in Equestrian Individual Eventing on the spectacular Château de Versailles jumping course outside Paris riding a horse he joined up with just six months ago.
Entering the final jumping round in second place, Christopher and ‘Shadow Man’ executed a beautifully-composed clear round to win his first individual Olympic medal, adding silver to his bronze medal in Team Eventing from Rio 2016.
The silver is especially sweet for the 42-year-old given he returned to eventing after taking time out from the discipline in 2021.
“I took a little break from the sport of eventing so it’s a really nice thing to come back and have something like this happen,” Christopher said.
“I’m delighted but right now I just can’t help but think what a lucky man I am.
Christopher and Shadow Man set things up perfectly with a blazing cross country round in wet and difficult conditions on Sunday in Paris, going into the jumping in bronze, then into the second round one position behind German champion Michael Jung.
The Aussie combination’s error-free round left Christopher with a nervous wait for Jung to jump last but the German went clear.
Christopher finished the three-day competition combining dressage, cross-country and showjumping with a final score of 22.4 penalty points, Jung on 21.8.
Christopher and Shadow Man only had their first competition together after the horse came to Burton Equestrian in March, but they proved a polished pair in Paris.
“Isn’t he a machine, isn’t he a delight ? He just springs off the ground, he’s a pleasure,” Christopher said.
Veteran Shane Rose and Virgil returned from serious injury to compete in Paris. They finished in 20th place in the individual eventing, while the Australian team of Shenae Lowings, Kevin McNab (retired), Shane and Christopher placed 15th.
The silver medal for Chris Burton is Australia’s sixth individual medal in Olympic Equestrian, following Andrew Hoy (bronze Tokyo 2020, silver Sydney 2000), Matt Ryan (gold Barcelona 1992), Laurie Morgan (gold Rome 1960) and Neale Lavis (silver Rome 1960).
Christopher’s medal takes Australia’s overall tally for Equestrian events at the Olympic Games to 15.
Next up for the Australian Team in Paris is the Individual Dressage, with Jayden Brown on board Quincy B. The event starts at 7pm AEST on Tuesday 30 July.
