We needed to be better. That's how you think. We remove a few obstacles and then it becomes like this, says national team captain Henrik Ankarcrona.
The Swedish medal hope Henrik von Eckermann – on the merited championship horse King Edward – had no major problems getting over the obstacles.
I was a bit off on one of the lines, but it sorted itself out, he says.
Of course, it's incredibly nice, a feeling you had hoped for, but you never know until you're in goal.
The course was otherwise perhaps on the easier side, according to the world number one.
I think this course was easier than during the first day (the qualification for the team final).
Trusts his gut feeling
Easy or hard, one of the top medal candidates and his horse cleared it. It was all about making it to Tuesday's final – and von Eckermann did.
Now the last round is waiting, and hopefully two rounds, he says.
He surprised by putting shoes on King Edward's front hooves again. After the team qualification, he took them off for the team final.
We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I'm going with my gut feeling.
What do you get with shoes?
The measurements show that the ground becomes a bit harder. There's a Swedish guy (Lars Roepstorff) who has a machine that measures hardness and flexibility, all parameters for the ground. It's done every day here.
Fredricson bombed
Riders are used to getting up early, but the final starts unusually early, already at 10.00.
It's calm. It won't be too hot, but a decent temperature. I'm loaded, says von Eckermann.
Peder Fredricson took individual OS silver in Tokyo three years ago (then on All In), but now misses the final. On Catch Me Not, he got eight faults and it wasn't enough to make it among the 30 best in Tuesday's final.
Rolf-Göran Bengtsson on Zuccero came in with a time of 75.15 and had to wait a long time before it was clear that the team would miss the OS final.
I can't see that they would have done anything differently. Zuccero has never done anything this big. It's a horse to develop and it will surely do fantastic things in the future, says Henrik Ankarcrona.
Bengtsson's only hope for an OS final is that two teams withdraw.
It's not likely, but it can happen, says Ankarcrona.
