The first jumping competition of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Greenwich Park threw up some big surprises today. Olympic course designer Bob Ellis’ track was expected to be a relatively gentle introduction for the riders, but two of the biggest stars of the game were amongst four to be eliminated. (Individual scores can be found here and team standings can be found here.)

A total of four nations completed on a zero score, and Sweden was amongst them despite elimination for Lisen Fredricson at the troublesome double at fence three where she took a heavy fall when landing in the middle of the opening triple bar. The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium also kept a clean sheet, while Brazil, France, Germany, and the United States each collected just one time penalty to finish in equal-fifth ahead of Saudi Arabia, with three on the board, in ninth place.

Teams from 15 nations lined out, and the hosts from Great Britain slotted into equal-10th alongside Australia when a single error from Scott Brash had to be taken in account after Peter Charles also fell victim to the distance between the second and third fences. The Ukraine finished 12th, Canada 13th, Mexico 14th, and Chile 15th. There were 32 clear rounds, eight horse-and-rider combinations picked up a single time fault, and 11 completed the course with just one fence down. All teams go through to tomorrow’s first round of the team competition and the top 10 nations then qualify for Monday’s second round medal-decider