The Chinese equestrian hot prospect Hua Tian drew a poor conclusion to his debut in the Olympic eventing after falling down from his horse during the cross-country competition, which the Chinese Olympic equestrian head blamed on Hua's lack of match experience.

"Hua Tian is still a child who lacks match experience, and (we) should not put too much pressure on him," Cheng Qing, the Chinese Olympic equestrian head, told Xinhua.

He explained that experience plays an important role in the equestrianism as riders who really shined in the eventing are mostly at the age of 40 or so, and equestrian veterans will calculate the speed of every step they take.

Both Hua and his horse were not injured in the accident that occurred when he tried to clear hurdles during the cross-country phase of the Olympic eventing at the Beas River equestrian arena in Hong Kong.

Nevertheless, Cheng still repeated that he did not "expect" the falling accident to happen, saying, if only he can "lower the speed(of the horse), it is not that much a problem for Hua to finish the match. May be the intense atmosphere affected his performance."

On Monday, 69 riders participated in the cross-country competition while eight riders were eliminated and one withdrew from the competition. In a related development, American Amy Tryon and New Zealand's Andrew Nicholson also fell from their horses and were disqualified.

After the relatively "dull" phase of dressage, the eventing came to its more "exciting" cross-country phase on Monday. The 4, 560-meter long course has 29 hurdle setups, which many riders consider a difficult one, despite its relatively short length. All of the 69 riders failed to finish the race in the required eight minutes.

Cheng said he believed Hua has the potential to compete with the world's equestrian masters, though he needs to be polished through all kinds of international competitions.

He pointed out that Hua usually got over 70 penalty points in dressage before, while in the Olympic eventing on August 9, he could only mange over 60, which is also a demonstration of his lack of match experience.

After the competition, Hua said, "I had a tough job keeping him going. He wasn't keen on the (video) screen. He keeps choosing new things. He was very nervous and inexperienced. He hasn't competed in front of such a big crowd before".

The Chinese sport authority did not set any goal for its equestrian team, since its debut in the Olympic eventing has already filled the gap for the country, and "more importantly the Chinese team gained its experience", said Cheng.

He added that China will step up its effort to find and train more equestrian riders, which includes sending more young talents to Europe, where the best equestrian riders come from, to learn their skills.

With Chinese heritage from his father and a horsy background from his British mother, the 18-year-old Hua Tian, also an Eton College student, gained his berth of the Olympics at an eventing competition held in Poland at the end of April.

He was the first Chinese rider registered by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) to compete in the three-day eventing at an international equestrian event, which includes dressage, jumping and cross-country competitions.

Cheng said given equestrianism is a very expensive sport, the sponsorship from enterprises are of great importance. The five horses rode by Hua in the competitions were all purchased with the funds from a company in China's Guangdong province.

"The more of such cooperation, the better," said Cheng.

Source:Xinhua