Ian Millar Takes First Step Towards Olympic Goal

Rio de Janiero, Brazil - Ian Millar, of Perth, Ontario, took the first step today towards reaching a lofty Olympic goal. In today's first leg of Pan American Games show jumping competition, the speed phase, only one out of 47 starters was able to negotiate the course faster than 60-year-old Millar on In Style. That entry was his team-mate and former student, Jill Henselwood, of Oxford Mills, Ontario, on Special Ed. With a 1-2 finish, they led Canada into the top position going into tomorrow's team medal final.

"Our number-one goal here is to qualify a Canadian team for the Olympic Games", a very happy Millar said. "We couldn't be in a better position going into tomorrow's nations' cup, but you can never take anything for granted with this formula". Today's scores are carried forward to two rounds of jumping tomorrow.

Millar is seeking a record ninth Olympic appearance in 2008 and Canada must earn the right to go to those Games, through these Pan American Games. Canada needs a top-three finish here to do that. A top-four finish will suffice if the already-qualified U.S. finishes ahead of Canada. But that doesn't look likely to happen now.

In a surprising twist, the usually strong Americans are well-back in fourth place. The equally favoured Brazilian home squad is third by mere fractions behind second-place Mexico. Less than one knockdown separates Canada, Mexico and Brazil, making tomorrow's jumping a tight contest.

As speed competitions often do, today's got faster and faster as it progressed. "To Jill's credit", Millar said, "she went fairly early and was able to set a pace that stood up against a lot of good efforts. That's hard to do." Millar had the luxury of jumping late in the field, but still finished just over a half second behind Henselwood.

With 8 Pan American Games medals already on his record, including two individual gold medals, Millar looks likely to satisfy his goal to have this team qualify Canada for the Olympics. He could also add another medal, possibly two, to his roster. Millar won individual gold in 1999 on Ivar and won both team and individual gold in 1987 on Big Ben.

Millar and Henselwood's team-mates, Eric Lamaze on Hickstead, and Mac Cone on Melinda, stand 10th and 17th respectively after today's first leg.