Olympics: dressage team takes silver

Friday 15 August 2008

The Dutch dressage team took the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday, disappointing pundits who had high hopes of gold.

‘It was just not good enough,’ Anky van Grunsven was reported as saying. ‘It’s a shame, but I knew gold was no longer an option after the first day. Our scores were below our average, they should have been higher.’

Grunsven, twice individual dressage Olympic champion, said she was under more pressure to take the title again. ‘People expect me to win… I have more of a feeling that I have to prove myself,’ she told news agency ANP.

In other Olympic news, medal hopeful Marleen Veldhuis finished a disappointing sixth in the final of the 100m freestyle.

The Netherlands is to submit a formal complaint about the starter who kept the swimmers on the blocks too long because of the noisy crowd. ‘It is no excuse for Marleen’s bad race, but the start should proceed normally,’ technical director Jacco Verhaeren told news agency ANP.

The men's hockey team is through to the knock-out competition, winning all three of its group matches.

© DutchNews.nl

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