麻豆社

Once again we find ourselves talking about a rather than the sport itself.

Yesterday afternoon four riders were suspended after their horses tested positive for a banned substance known as .

As I raced backwards and forwards to the media centre from our commentary position to file reports, the Hong Kong four as I've dubbed them, were positioned outside the offices of the sport's governing body (the FEI) looking very nervous as they waited to hear their fate.

"We have a problem," said one of the team bosses on his mobile phone. Too right you have a problem I thought.

This sort of thing is as serious as it gets in show jumping, it ruins the sport and none of them will be very popular in their home countries.

Capsaicin is a derivative of the chilli pepper and can be prescribed for humans with neuralgia. Although unlicensed for veterinary medicine, it's thought to be widely used in in horse racing.

Applied as an ointment, it has both pain relieving and hyper-sensitizing properties so the latter could be used to encourage jumping horses to lift their feet higher. Whatever happened to just training a horse to jump and leaving it at that?

Anyway, the B samples have yet to be scrutinised so things could potentially change but this has cast a shadow over the whole games here. when both the team and individual gold medals were revoked after two horses failed tests.

Yet again this concerns an Irishman and a German as well as the Norwegian and Brazilian. I feel particularly sorry for the rest of the Norwegian team here as their team bronze was the country's first ever Olympic equestrian medal and if Tony Andre Hansen is disqualified, they will surely lose their prized bronze.

That would put Switzerland in third place which makes me wonder how they must be feeling? Imagine discovering you've been denied your time on the podium because of cheating. Getting a medal three weeks later just can't be the same. It's time for the powers that be to get tough.

Onto the actual competition though and there was . It all went wrong for them in the final round. Ben told me his mare Rolette was tired out: "It was one round too many, she was fine for the first half then just couldn't give me any more."

I was live on air as he completed his round and it can't have made a good listen... "oh no that's four, and eight, that's gone too, his medal chances have gone..." etc etc.

Poor , he'd ridden so beautifully all the way through with a fantastic clear in the first part of the final. He is a credit to his country. As is Tim Stockdale who also went clear first time round. Nobody wanted to do well here more than him. I really hope he isn't too hard on himself.

I have decided that when you have horses as good as Corlato and Rolette and you can ride as well as Tim and Ben, then rest is fundamentally all about luck.

It's a shame Nick Skelton had another disappointing round. I did find myself wondering during these games if Russel is really the fifth best jumping horse in Britain? Presumably that's why he and Nick were selected as travelling reserves?

I haven't had the chance to ask Nick in person during these Games as he was out shopping during the team press conference and unavailable for comment last night.

Congratulations to Eric Lamaze who won gold for Canada on the wonderfully British sounding 'Hickstead'. He really went for it in the jump off and fully deserved his victory.

So that concludes the Olympic horsey events, and just in time as the city is in the midst of another typhoon. The rain is bucketing down and we're confined to our hotel room.

Many horses and people are stuck in HK until it clears. I'm not going anywhere as I'm staying for the Paralympics.

I have had a brilliant time so far and will never forget the things I've been up to... broadcasting live from the roof of the Sheraton with Tim Stockdale and William Whitaker whilst balancing my satellite on the high wall... hugging Michael Whitaker after he'd shown his emotion over brother John's elimination fiasco, interviewing Lord Coe live at the cross country and being there to see Tina Cook and Emma Hindle's outstanding performances in the eventing and dressage.

Well done to everyone, thanks to the army of helpers here, big thanks to my Mum and let's hope for a gold rush at the Paralympics.