Annika Schleu has been working towards this day for five years - everything in her life is geared towards ensuring that nothing that can influence her is left to chance.

And now that she is sitting on the back of "Saint Boy" in the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza and the Olympic gold medal is within reach, the only variable is failing the modern pentathlete.

David Lindenfeld

Volunteer.

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Silence in the stadium.

Only Schleu's whimpering and crying can be heard.

She shouts something to her trainer.

She yells back: “Go on, go on.” But on this day it goes no further.

Her horse "Saint Boy", the "Holy Boy", refuses to carry the Berliner over the show jumping course for gold.

"Hit it, hit it right"

Schleu, who seemed to have a medal after a strong competition in fencing and a passable swim, notices this when she enters the course with her horse.

They always shy away from it and don't even want to go around.

Seconds pass that feel like an eternity.

Schleu sobs.

She suspects what is going to happen and tries to drive her horse on with the crop.

“Hit it, hit it right,” calls out her trainer Kim Raisner.

Then “Saint Boy” finally starts running, barely taking the first obstacle and also the second. Schleus gaze is now focused again. Maybe something is still possible. Obstacle three, obstacle four. But then it's over. "Saint Boy" bucks, refuses to jump. Now the tears are rolling down Schleu's face again. The German does not give up, drives her horse into the next obstacle, the poles fall again. Then the fourth refusal. Eliminated. Zero points. From the dream of a medal.

Schleu failed because of a horse that was unsettled and not ready for a competition exactly at the moment that was to be her big performance - and yet was driven from one obstacle to the next by his rider.

“It's tragic.

I don't know why the horse was so insecure and it will probably take a while to get over it, ”said Schleu.

The special thing about modern pentathlon is that the athletes in show jumping do not ride their own horses, but horses that are drawn to them in the run-up to the competition.

And Schleu, you could say that much, did not draw a good lot that day.

In the first round, “Saint Boy”, ridden by Gulnas Gubaidullina, who competes for the Russian Olympic Committee, refused to jump over the obstacles three times.

Why does the horse behave like this?

There can be a variety of reasons for a horse to behave in this way.

Such blockages can be triggered by negative experiences in the past, but the rider and her skills also have an influence on the behavior of her horse.

A similar case had already destroyed hopes for a second Olympic victory for the German athlete Lena Schöneborn in 2016.

And Schleu was by no means the only one on Friday who had problems getting her horse through the course in a controlled manner.

A discussion about alleged cruelty to animals broke out on social media parallel to the drama in the Japanese city of Chofu.

The focus: the blows with the whip and the request from trainer Raisner, Schleu should "hit harder".

Schleu said that when they changed clothes shortly after the ride, they received “various hate messages”.

However, critical questions must also be asked of the organizers: Why did a veterinarian declare the horse to be ready for use after the first ride from Gubaidullina?

And the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne, umbrella organization of the modern pentathlon: Does this game of chance with animals that have been drawn still fit into this time?

In Japan it was not only the horse that suffered that did not want to.

Schleu too, who wanted to but couldn't.

This time everything had started so well for the 31-year-old athlete after she narrowly missed a medal in Rio in fourth. After the first day of competition Schleu was in first place with 274 points. 29 fencing wins in 35 fights: Suddenly there was a chance: “Before the games, I squinted a bit towards the medal. Now I'm suddenly in a situation I've never been in, ”Schleu said after the first day of the competition.

This was followed by riding, which threw her back from first to 31st. 36 athletes took part. In the final laser run, a combination of shooting and running, which is one of Schleus's strengths, the Berliner could no longer catch up. What remained were disturbing images, a broken dream and the realization that Schleu had lost: in the modern pentathlon equestrian lottery.