LOUTH’S Mark McAuley and Django Ste Hermelle were runners-up in the four-star 1.45m jump-off class at Ascona in Switzerland on Saturday afternoon. From a start list of 34, 13 jumped clear to proceed to the jump-off. It was a close finish, with less than a second separating the top four placings.

McAuley’s time of 36.22 seconds was just shy of the winning time of Switzerland’s Edouard Schmitz on Karel Doorman, who clocked 35.49, while third-placed Bryan Balsiger (SUI) on Fais Toi Belle di Seigneur Pleville finished just 0.05 seconds behind McAuley (36.27) and fourth-placed Rodrigo Sampaio Peixoto on Hipop de Cantraie was another 0.05 in arrears (36.32).