MEATH’S Cian O’Connor showed why he is in the top 10 show jumpers in the world when he and the nine-year-old gelding Gengis Kann de Londe won the five-star 1.55m speed class, the first competition of the Global Champions League in Madrid on Friday afternoon.

The one-round class saw 59 combinations on the start list, with 14 of them managing to jump clear within the time allowed. O’Connor and his mount were the fastest of these, stopping the clock in 66.86 seconds, more than a second ahead of their nearest rival, Belgium’s Jerome Guery riding Killer Queen (68.17), who had to be content with the runner-up spot on this occasion. Spanish rider Mariano Martinez Bastida on Jup completed the podium in 68.97, while Denis Lynch on Brooklyn Heights placed fourth in 69.93.

Tom Wachman was on the third-placed St Tropez Pirates in the team competition, riding two horses – namely Tabasco de Toxandria Z, on whom he jumped clear in round two, and Do It Easy, on whom he had four faults in round one. This moves the St Tropez Pirates to seventh place after leg four of the league, while Lynch’s New York Empire team sit in sixth.

Success

Three days of world-class show jumping had begun in Madrid on Friday, as the Longines Global Champions Tour fixture got underway.

After his opening day success, O’Connor and Gengis Kann de Londe placed fourth in Saturday’s 1.50m jump-off class. From a start list of 46, 14 combinations completed clear first rounds to proceed to the jump-off, where seven of them remained fault-free. O’Connor’s time of 40.32 didn’t quite make it onto the podium, with the win going to Katrin Eckermann (GER) on Chao Lee in 38.51, followed by Gilles Thomas (BEL) on Luna van het Dennehof in second (39.37) and Christian Ahlmann (GER) on Mandato van de Neerheide completing the podium in third (39.75). Lynch and Brooklyn Heights clocked a speedy jump-off round, but a pole down meant they placed eighth as the fastest four-faulter.

O’Connor secured another top five finish in Madrid when he rode the 14-year-old gelding Bentley de Sury into fifth place in the 1.60m Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix on Sunday. There were 40 on the start list and just seven of them jumped clear in the first round to make it through to the jump-off.

A tough course produced just four clear rounds second time out; O’Connor had a pole down and had to settle for fifth place this time (35.40), but still took home a nice prize pot of €30,000. The win went to Greek rider Ioli Mytilineou on L’Artiste de Toxandra (34.00), with Germany securing second and third places in the shape of Marco Kutscher on Aventador S (35.98) and Hans-Dieter Dreher on Elysium (36.12) respectively.

Wachman and Tabasco de Toxandria Z finished just outside the top 10 in 11th place when they incurred four faults in round one. Denis Lynch currently sits in third place in the individual league standings after leg four in Madrid.