IRELAND finished on the Nations Cup podium again over the weekend, with a third-place finish at the four-star fixture at Sopot in Poland.

Nine teams lined up on Friday for the four-star 1.55m Nations Cup competition. Michael Blake had named his team as David Simpson (Pjotr Van De Kruishoeve), Jason Foley (Chedington Hazy Toulana), Max Wachman (Kilkenny (ISH)) and Cian O’Connor (Bentley De Sury) and, after successes at Langley and La Baule, team members had all to play for.

First in, Simpson rode a fast round, but a pole down saw him incur four faults. Foley was next, but picked up eight faults, a score which was discarded.

Wachman rode a polished round, keeping all the poles in place, but incurring a single time-penalty, while anchorman O’Connor showed his experience by jumping a clear round. This put Ireland on a score of five after the first round and into second place behind Belgium, who were on four faults at that point.

In round two, Simpson remained consistent, again picking up four faults, while Foley bettered his previous score to four in this round. This time it was Wachman’s score of eight that was discarded, with O’Connor also faulting this time out and incurring four faults, giving Ireland a tally of 12 for the round and a total of 17 faults overall.

This put Ireland into third place, behind Belgium, who won on eight faults, followed by Italy in second place on 13 faults.

Team Ireland now looks forward to the Longines League of Nations at Rotterdam, where Ireland’s line-up is set to comprise of the La Baule five-star winning team of Cian O’Connor, Bertram Allen, Tom Wachman and Seamus Hughes Kennedy.

In the ribbons

Show jumping at Sopot in Poland ran from Thursday, June 12th until Sunday, June 16th and included four-star individual classes, as well as a Nations Cup competition on Friday.

Thursday saw Max Wachman take a podium place when he and Gift Des Lunes jumped double clear to place third in the four-star 1.45m two-phase special class, while Jason Foley and Cute Face placed ninth in the 1.50m Grand Prix qualifier.

Wachman then rode The Kerryman into 10th place in the 1.45m speed class on Saturday.