Sara
Cavanagh (Schwartz) is the Editor of
The Horse of Delaware Valley and
reports from time to time on the goings on at the Markopoulo Equestrian Center
of the Athens Olympic Games. 
Sunday
- 1st day of eventing dressage, hot with abreeze in a.m., but at lunch time became
VERY windy - the venue is huge - it's 3 or 4 kilometers from the entrance, after
which only accredited cars, vans & busses are allowed, to the venue, so if
a car bomb tried to get in, even if it flew past the guards at the entrance, there
would be ample time to stop it - plus, as I said before, there are soldiers with
rifles, usually set back among the olive trees so they're hard to spot, all around
the perimeter. Once inside (and the security check to get in is VERY thorough),
from the press entrance, the first LARGE building is the press center, air conditioned
- big eating area with tables and benches, also with tables, chairs under umbrellas
outside and big press conference room on ground level - upstairs is working area
with phones, etc. From press center, across a wide expanse of open concrete,
to the south is a huge stadium with grass footing and lighting. You go all the
way around that stadium on the east side, up a long, gradual staircase (2 strides
on each step), again across a large open expanse of concrete, and in front of
you is the dressage arena, with all-weather footing.
Graduated warm-up
areas are to the left, and beyond that the stables. To get to the cross country,
you must walk down through three warm-up areas, cross north through a tunnel to
the start. It takes seven minutes to walk from the press entrance to the dressage
arena.
Everything is very strict - I am not allowed in the athletes' entrance,
which is on the far south east side of the venue, and George (Morris), even though
he has a coach's credential, is not allowed through the press entrance, which
is on the far north side.
The landscape is stark, but beautiful in it's
own way, the mountains to the south appear very close, thee's a vast area being
mined (for limestone, maybe?)
Julie Richards, Jacob Two Two, first to go
after lunch after an almost gale-force wind has arisen, is plagued by letters
being knocked over by the wind, she said it was like a wind tunnel in the stadium
- you could hear the flags snapping above you. Obviously this caused spooks, so
she scored badly, 65.
Darren Chiachia went late, David O'Connor said
the wind might help move his stallion Windfall up a bit - and it must have, as
he scored 44.6 to stand 4th individually after first day - can't figure team standings
as some teams have had 2 go and some teams have had 3 go.
Some more comments
about X-country - the first six fences are easy and could lull you into a false
sense of security, the course does run straight out and back, with no turns, but
the fences are also almost geometrically evenly spaced, so there are no big galloping
stretches, there are many corners and many very narrow fences set on top of hillocks,
so the slightest lack of concentration could lead to a glance-off. The escape
routes, or easy options, are almost all very like the harder version, but set
in exactly the opposite direction, so it would take ALOT longer.
With the
wind, and it's windy Monday morning again, it's not hot.
More later
S |
