EQUESTRIAN:IRELAND FAILED to secure a show jumping team place at next summer's London Olympic Games when finishing ninth in yesterday's European championships in Madrid. The Irish squad of Shane Sweetnam, Nicola FitzGibbon, Denis Lynch and Billy Twomey went into the team finale in seventh place and, while winning a medal in the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid never looked likely, they had to maintain their position to secure a place in London.
First to jump, Sweetnam and Amaretto d’Arco lowered two fences, as they did on Thursday, to complete in 30th position individually on a score of 19.46. Nicola FitzGibbon had a disappointing first appearance at the championships and, with 20 faults on Puissance, again provided the discard score.
Denis Lynch and Lantinus put in their best performance of the week with just one down but, in contrast, Billy Twomey and Tinka’s Serenade, who had two clears to their credit, had their worst round when lowering three of the last four obstacles for 12 faults on the day.
His championship total of 12.95 dropped the Cork native from overnight second to 18th but he will still line up in tomorrow’s individual final of the top 25 riders.
Ten nations took part in an exciting conclusion to the team event where the placings changed constantly. Germany, the most successful country in the history of the championships, eventually landed title number seven with France taking silver. Great Britain narrowly won bronze ahead of the Netherlands who secured one of the Olympic places with Sweden (fifth) and Switzerland (sixth) taking the other two.
It’s a very busy weekend at home with the Johnson Perrott Land Rover international horse trials continuing at Ballindenisk, Co Cork.
On Thursday , Britain’s William Fox-Pitt led after the dressage phase of the CCI*** with the Irish-bred Avoca Alibi while his compatriot, Harry Meade, topped the leaderboard in the CCI* on the eight-year-old mare A Modern Duchess.
Yesterday , the dressage phase of four other classes was staged and, in the senior competitions, the honours were evenly spread. Italy’s Giovanni Ugolotti riding Stormhill Kossack headed the field in the CCI***, Ireland’s Captain Brian Curran Cournane on Rossbeigh fared best in the CIC** while Britain’s Jo Andrews was in pole position in the CCI**.
Co Cork’s Jodie O’Keeffe and the Selle Francais 13-year-old Kachemire le Beau lead the all-Irish junior one-star class going into today’s cross-country phase.
