Dressage team seal GB's 20th gold
August 07, 2012 17:02:09 UK
Great Britain's dressage team secured the team's 20th gold medal of the London Olympics to make it the best tally in more than a century.
The dressage team of Laura Bechtolsheimer, Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin averaged 79.979 to win the event ahead of Germany, who finished on 78.216 at Greenwich Park.
It leaves GB with one more gold then the team picked up at the Beijing Games in 2008 and is the best Olympic performance since the 1908 London Games where the hosts won 56 golds but supplied almost a third of the entrants.
It's a combination of so many years of dreaming about it and it finally happening. Those girls are cool customers and Charlotte is unbelievable for the amount of time she's been riding.
Carl Hester
The victory for GB marks a rapid improvement in the equestrian discipline, which tests the understanding between horse and rider as they complete manoeuvres, given that they finished fifth in Beijing.
On winning gold, Hester told the BBC: "It's a combination of so many years of dreaming about it and it finally happening. Those girls are cool customers and Charlotte is unbelievable for the amount of time she's been riding.
"The horse is also unbelievable, you can see he's the best horse in the world. We've finally won it and I said to Charlotte on the way here, I have a little saying for her, some people wish it will happen, some people think it will happen and you are going to make it happen.
"That's the sort of thing I can say to her. It would frighten a lot of people but she just takes it goes in there and rips through her test like a professional of 20 years would."
It is Team GB's second gold on Tuesday, while they are in contention to win three more in the cycling. Britain can now be backed at 2.62 to make it four golds by the end of the day's action and 3.75 to add three more and pick up five.
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