THE Irish senior show jumping team of Shane Sweetnam, Bertram Allen, Denis Lynch and Cian O’Connor won team gold at the FEI European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden tonight.

Ireland went into the final round sharing the bronze medal position with Belgium and in what was an incredible clean sheet performance from Sweetnam, Lynch and O’Connor, secured the gold medal, finishing on a total of 12.11 penalties.

The home nation Sweden won the silver medal on 18.21 penalties, with Switzerland taking bronze (20.15).

Team manager Rodrigo Pessoa unveiled a green, white and gold blazer during the prize giving and said: “I’ve been wanting to turn the jacket around all year but I didn’t get a chance because we didn’t win anything, but today is a very good day to do it.”

Pessoa continued: “These are a great group of guys, we have had a lot of fun but serious too. Well done to the horses, riders and grooms. Unbelievable job!”

Sweetnam was first to jump a perfect clear round with the amazing Chaqui Z to stay on 2.10 penalties individually and move into the bronze medal position ahead of Sunday’s final.

Lynch followed and never looked like touching a pole with All Star 5. Disaster struck for Sweden when Malin Baryard-Johnsson (H&M Cue Channa) was forced to retire after crashing through the second part of the double, and Douglas Lindelow (Zacramento) racked up big penalties.

Cian O’Connor had one fence in hand when entering the ring last to jump for Ireland. Once again, O’Connor kept his cool and produced a top class clear round with Good Luck, securing the gold medal. O’Connor moves into fourth place individually with 2.25 penalties.

Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat had once fence down with Bianca to secure the bronze medal for his team on a total of 20.15.

Sweden’s Peder Fredricson was last to jump and was another that had to produce a clear to win silver. The wonderful H&M All In never looked like faulting and crossed the line clear, to the delight of the home crowd, to stay ahead in the individual standings.

A vital part of the team, although suffering some bad luck on Thursday, Bertram Allen was on hand throughout the competition and joined his teammates on the podium to collect his gold medal. The team were also joined by development team manager Michael Blake, who is a huge part of the team... and even managed to steal Pessoa's bunch of flowers!

The individual final takes place on Sunday. Fredricson is in gold medal position, ahead of Switzerland's Martin Fuchs and Sweetnam.

Ireland won the European Championship team gold medal once before at Arnhem in The Netherlands in 2001 with a team that included Kevin Babington, Jessica Kürten, Peter Charles and Dermott Lennon.

Click here for full result

Click here for individual standings

WHAT THEY SAID

Rodrigo Pessoa, Irish team manager, talking about the Irish team effort

"We had this goal since the beginning of the year and our road was a little bit bumpy. We had some things that happened during the year and this week too, but we stuck together, we said we win together or we lose together and they showed a lot of determination and strength today, and I’m really proud of them for sure!"

Cian O'Connor

"We spoke with Rodrigo about it last night, we thought the lights might work to our advantage, be a bit spooky and might catch out some horses. Our three stallions are all very brave and scopey, and the lights nearly helped them. We were quietly confident that we could do the business, and obviously Shane (Chaqui Z) had a really tough job going first…

"I was outside warming up when Denis (All Star) jumped clear and I thought - I have to match that now! I don’t even remember the round, it was all kind of a blur. But I do remember going through the finish!"

Shane Sweetnam talking about his team's experience:

"It was fairly stressful all week to be honest. We had a big aim all year, but things didn’t go our way, there was a long time between the classes and from yesterday to today, when we knew we were down to three.

"We had a good dinner last night, we got together and we said we’ll keep fighting for this. As you know the Irish are always better as underdogs, and we proved that, so we are very happy to be here now!”

Denis Lynch

"What you’re here for is to deliver. Sadly I didn’t do it yesterday which would have given us a better advantage, I had the last fence down, which I take on my cap. But tonight I put the ball in the net and did what was expected of me"