DENIS Lynch has risen to ninth place in the FEI Longines world ranking, making him the highest ranked Irish rider in the world, just ahead of Tokyo Olympian Darragh Kenny in 10th place.

Lynch, who was named The Irish Field senior show jumper of the year in 2020, jumped seven places from 16th to ninth this month, following a string of good results at four and five-star level. Kenny drops one place to 10th but also had a good month in July, winning the five-star GCT Grand Prix in Monaco. Kenny has now been inside the top 10 rankings for 20 months.

Ireland have a total of 12 show jumpers inside the top 100. Next best is another Tokyo Olympian Bertram Allen, who is up one place to 21st, while Shane Sweetnam has risen eight places to 25th.

Twenty-one-year-old Mikey Pender made a huge jump of 20 places to 55, and Shane Breen has risen 21 places to 59, just ahead of Mark McAuley in 61st place. Jordan Coyle is up to 67th in the world and also in the top 100 is his brother Daniel (78th), who was named this week on the team for the upcoming FEI European Championships, Conor Swail (81st), Paul O’Shea (83rd) and Michael G. Duffy (99) complete the Irish in the top 100.

Germany’s Daniel Deusser holds onto the world number one spot for another month, just eight points ahead of Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs at number two. Olympic champion Ben Maher has dropped from 12th to 32nd place but that ranking is expected to rise again next month.