AN experienced Irish team pulled out all the stops in the second round of the five-star Nations Cup at La Baule in France to move up from eighth place at the halfway point to third at the finish.

Ten teams lined up for the 1.60m Coupe des Nations Barriere (Nations Cup) on Friday afternoon, with Ireland fielding a strong squad of experienced riders. Jessica Kurten had selected Darragh Kenny on Eddy Blue; Bertram Allen on Qonquest de Rigo; Cian O’Connor on Chatolinue PS and Shane Sweetnam on the 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding James Kann Cruz (Kannan x CSF Telly Cruz by Cruising), bred by Patrick Connolly, for the Irish team, who were drawn sixth to jump.

Kenny was first in for Ireland and finished on four faults, followed by Allen, who rode an almost perfect round, just picking up a single time penalty. O’Connor was next and he picked up four faults, as did Sweetnam, which put Ireland on a score of nine at the end of round one, equal to Switzerland, and into eighth place.

At the halfway stage, Germany and Great Britain each had a zero score, with France sitting on one fault.

Fortitude

Rider expertise showed it’s worth for Ireland in the second round, when the team showed great fortitude to pull themselves up to claim a place on the podium. Kenny bettered his first-round score to jump clear second time out, as did both Allen and O’Connor. With a zero score for the round already secured, Sweetnam did not need to jump again. This kept Ireland on their first-round score of nine, which put them in third place at the finish.

It was a home win for France, when they finished on their first-round score of one, with Germany finishing second on four, with Ireland completing the podium.

Kurten commented afterwards: “Today was a very important event in La Baule, as many countries brought extremely strong teams to measure where they are, looking ahead to the World Championships in Aachen.

“We started slowly in round one with concentration mistakes, which cost us a lot. Round two, however, was on point and where we should be.

“A podium is always good and the third place today showed us that, while we are not there yet, we are moving very much in the right direction, so I finish the day feeling positive.”

Great start

The five-star Nations Cup fixture at La Baule in France ran from June 11th to 14th and Meath’s Cian O’Connor got off to a great start with a win in Thursday’s 1.50m Prix FFE/ Generali speed class, when he rode the 10-year-old gelding Genghis Khan into first place, with a clear round in 59.57. The pair finished a mere 0.04 seconds ahead of French runner-up Kevin Staut on Feline de Hus HDC, who clocked 59.61. Canada’s Erynn Ballard completed the podium with De Flor 111 Z Santa Rosa (60.90).

On Saturday, Sweetnam rode Pia Maria H into fifth place in the 67-strong 1.50m Prix Saur jump-off class. Although 17 combinations jumped a clear first round, only 14 of them proceeded to jump again, with eight completing double clear. Sweetnam’s time of 38.52 was almost two seconds off the winner, Steve Guerdat (SUI) on Lancelotta, who stopped the clock in 36.57.

The show concluded with the 1.60m Rolex Grand Prix Ville de la Baule, which saw a start list of 45. Of these, just seven jumped clear in round one and all but two of those picked up faults in the jump-off. The two double clears were recorded by Piergiorgio Bucci (ITA) on Hantano, who won in a time of 40.61, and Martin Fuchs (SUI) on Conner Jei, who had to settle for second place in a time of 41.03.

There were two Irish in the top five, when O’Connor on the 13-year-old gelding Chatolinue PS placed fourth and Allen on Qonquest de Rigo took fifth.

Ireland’s Gavin Harley rode Liverpool SFN into second place (47.90) in Sunday’s one-star 1.35m Range Rover Grand Prix at the venue, only being beaten by Jeanne Rossez (FRA) on N Dayclic de la Berangeri (46.66).