Annika Zillekens: German suffers more horse misfortune in repeat of Tokyo drama - 'Not the Hollywood story I wished for'

Germany’s Annika Zillekens failed to make it through to the modern pentathlon final after her assigned horse refused a jump in the showjumping round. The resultant time penalty was too big for the 34-year-old to claw back in the laser run, and was a repeat of the incident from Tokyo 2020, which saw Zillekens and her coach receive widespread criticism after their treatment of the horse went viral.

Annika Zillekens suffered at the hands of her randomly assigned horse once again in the women’s modern pentathlon, failing to make it through to Sunday's final.

The 34-year-old German was competing in the first round of the semi-final A when her horse, Arezzo De Riverland, refused a jump, leaving Zillekens with a significant time penalty to make up in the remaining rounds.

After gaining no additional points in the fencing bonus round, a strong swim had left her within touching distance of the qualifying places entering the laser run.

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But it was too big a gap to bridge, despite her completing the second-fastest laser run of the whole field.

The German finished in 10th place, narrowly missing out on the top nine qualifying spots by two points, and will head home without a medal for the fourth Olympic Games in a row.

"Of course it was really emotional," she said in an interview with Reuters after the race.

'That'll be elimination!' - Nightmare fall in pentathlon before horse runs away

Video credit: TNT Sports

"I really had the wish to come back to make a happy last result in the Olympics.

"It was a really hard time [after Tokyo] and I was happy that I was able to come back and that all the pentathlon world was so nice to me.”

Zillekens, who was competing under her maiden name Schleu at Tokyo 2020, went viral after footage emerged of her excessive use of the whip and her coach Kim Raisner’s mistreatment of the pentathlete’s randomly assigned horse, Saint Boy, after it refused three jumps and eliminated her from the showjumping round.

The German was leading the contest at that point, but would eventually have to settle for 31st place.

The furore over Zilleken and Raisner’s actions saw modern pentathlon change forever. The sport was initially struck from the 2028 Los Angeles schedule, but has now been reinstated with an obstacle course replacing the showjumping element.

"I made the decision to try another Olympics and I'm really happy with this decision, even if it's not the Hollywood story I wished for,” she added.

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"For me, mentally, it's a better ending to stop here in Paris than when I would have stopped in Tokyo.

"I always loved the riding in Pentathlon, but as we all know there was the time for change, so I think the new generation can live with the new format pretty well.

"I see the younger ones and I see that they have fun in the new format, and they have fun in the new sport, so I think it's a good decision."

The German pentathlon team's day went from bad to worse when their other athlete, Rebecca Langrehr, was not able to start the showjumping round, recording a DNS and effectively ending her shot at qualifying for the finals.

The 26-year-old Olympic debutant suffered a fall in the warm-up but was given the green light to ride by team doctors. The vet had other ideas though, and would not allow her assigned horse Epervier des Brulins to compete.

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