Judy Reynolds qualifies for Olympic final

Dressage rider Judy Reynolds last night declared she is taking a “we have nothing to lose” approach after she booked her place in Monday’s Olympic final.

The Kildare native finished in 17th place yesterday after upping her performance on Vancouver K to be among the 18 riders who will start on a zero score in the battle for the individual medals.

The 35-year-old had told the Irish Examiner on Thursday that such was the level of competition, she needed a big improvement yesterday and she achieved her aim, setting a new Irish grand prix special record score of 74.090%.

She is hopeful of further improvement in Monday’s freestyle grand prix to music, saying: “We can only do our best again, but we have nothing to lose, so we’ll give it our all.”

Reynolds is only the fourth Irish dressage rider to qualify for the Olympics, with Ireland’s best result coming in 1992 in Barcelona, when Anna Merveldt and Rapallo placed 11th.

Yesterday’s competition also decided the team medals, with world champions Germany taking gold - the country’s eighth victory in nine Olympics - with silver going to the 2012 London champions Britain, and the US taking bronze.

Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin (Valegro) will defend the individual title she won four years ago after qualifying for Monday's event with the second highest individual score behind Germany’s Isabell Werth on Weihegold.

Meanwhile, MHS Going Global, the horse of Ireland’s sole show jumper in Rio de Janeiro, Greg Broderick, passed the veterinary inspection yesterday.

Defending champion Nino Des Buissonnets was among three horses sent to the holding box, but the 15-year-old was passed fit to compete when Swiss rider Steve Guerdat re-presented him.

The competition begins on Sunday.