KILDARE’s Jake O’Connor won the gold medal at the European Mounted Games Association (MGA) Championships, hosted by England MGA took place last week at the Royal Bath and West Show grounds in Shepton Mallet.

Ireland had representatives in the U14, U17 and open age team competitions and also had a number of individual entries.

The open individual competition started last Tuesday with three qualifying rounds being run over two days. Three Irish riders – Jake O’Connor from Naas, Co Kildare, Philip Weldon from Meath and Ian Hyland from Laois – qualified for the semi-finals.

Other representatives in the individuals qualifying rounds were Jamie Reavey, Alan Keogan – who is a former three-time European Individual Champion – Ciaran Hanlon and Ciaran O’Leary.

O’Connor took up an early lead in the semi finals and remained consistent throughout, picking up enough points to earn himself a place in the final.

Things didn’t go to plan for Weldon, he finished a respectable 12th with Hyland finishing just behind him in 13th place, and unfortunately this was not enough to secure a place in the final.

INDIVIDUAL FINAL

The final took place on Friday night in front of a packed grandstand, despite the pouring rain. The crowd was in good voice and when O’Connor rode into the arena on Kilycloughan Sonata, affectionately known as Izzy, he felt the full force of his supporters as they cheered him into the arena.

O’Connor bought the six-year-old brown mare as an unbroken three-year-old. She is out of the show hunter mare Sonnata and is by Isobel Reynor’s late stallion Green Horizon. Izzy was bred by Craig Roundtree of Killycloughan Horses.

With 10 races and seven other exceptional finalists between him and the individual European title O’Connor had to focus and set about the task at hand.

The first race was claimed by the reigning European champion, Euan Taylor from Scotland, with Jake taking second. This set the tone for the races that followed.

O’Connor consistently placed second and third throughout the final races, notching up points as he went. Ultimately, when he won the Victoria cross race he couldn’t be caught on points by any of his competitors and won the final by a comfortable margin of five points.

O’Connor has trained Izzy himself over the last few years to become the champion she is and for such a young horse to win this prestigious title is a huge credit to O’Connor.

Ireland were also well represented in the U17 individual category by Sadie Hyland, Sorcha Woods, Orla Montague, Killian Creed, Padraigh Moran and Danni Oliffe.

Hyland impressed throughout her heats and qualified into the semi-finals in first place. Oliffe also made it through to the semi-finals.

After an excellent start to the competition, unfortunately Hyland failed to qualify for the final. However, with another two years in this age group she will surely be back to fight another day.

Oliffe and Hyland finished 11th and 15th respectively.

TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

The team competition started on Wednesday, and Ireland’s first representatives into the arena were the U14 team comprised of Matt Sinnott, Ali McPhillips, Izzy Tyrell, Molly Kinsella and Niamh O’Leary with Daragh Montague as reserve.

They were trained by Aido Hanlon.

These young riders were impeccable and were lying in second place overnight to England, but faded in the second half of the final to finish fifth overall.

The U17 team of Leo Kieran, Aodan O’Leary, Saoirse Wynn, Marie Louise Hughes and Daragh Carolan, with Sadie Hyland in reserve, were trained by the new individual European Champion, Jake O’Connor.

Unfortunately, this young team made too many mistakes in the final and first place went to a very impressive Welsh team trained by Iian Hopkins.

Ireland lost out in a battle with England for second place, managing to stay just one point clear of Italy for third.

The Open team was trained by Paul Adcock from England, the team members were brother and sister Craig and Kate O’Connor, Peter McCarthy, Mark Devitt and Stevie Kieran, with Philip Weldon as reserve.

The Open team fought hard with their long-time rivals England and at one stage they were very close on points. Despite their best efforts they couldn’t close the gap and England took the title with Ireland finishing as reserve champions.