German Annika Schleu shed tears as horse refuses to cooperate and fails to bag the gold in Tokyo

By Edward Era Barbacena

Tokyo - An Olympic pentathlete was left in tears as her horse refused to jump and she plummeted from the gold medal position toward the bottom of the competition.

Germany’s Annika Schleu was left inconsolable when her horse, Saint Boy, would not take on any obstacles in the show jumping portion of the pentathlon.

An issue was first apparent when coverage appeared to show Schleu in floods of tears before the ride had even started.

She desperately tried to get her horse to co-operate.

Eventually she managed to get Saint Boy to enter the arena.

The horse did clear four sets of hurdles when the ride finally got going.

But after colliding with the fifth, Saint Boy had evidently had enough.

Schleu's coaches could only watch on in awkward disbelief.

Schleu was leading the event after the fencing and swimming competitions.

Her horse’s refusal to cooperate cost her dearly, and after scoring zero points she fell from first position to 31st out of 36 competitors with just two events left.

Tearful Schleu had another go at getting around the course, but Saint Boy again refused.

After narrowly missing out on a medal in Rio, coming fourth, Schleu's event ended in devastation.

The incident has divided fans online.

While there has been plenty of sympathy for Schleu, some have also admitted that they feel for Saint Boy.

Pentathletes do not bring their own horses to the Olympics but are instead randomly assigned one of 18 horses.