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RODRIGO Pessoa’s Irish team moved up one place to share equal third in the team standings ahead of tomorrow’s (Friday) final round at the FEI European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.
In a competition filled with plenty of drama, the top three in the individual standings stayed the same, while Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam and Cian O’Connor both produced fantastic clear rounds to move into sixth and seventh places respectively.
Sweetnam was first out for Ireland with Spy Coast Farm’s Chaqui Z and with a text book round over Louis Konickx’s big track, kept Ireland in the hunt for a medal. Sweetnam stays on 2.10 penalties.
Bertram Allen experienced some bad luck with Hector van d’Abdhijoeve when the powerful stallion attempted to take off a stride too early to the oxer after the combination, resulting in a rider fall and unfortunate elimination. Both horse and rider looked okay walking out of the ring, but it seems the pair have lost their confidence and in the interests of safety will not jump tomorrow.
The final obstacle, a 1.60m vertical was most certainly the boogie fence of the day, and it was the one that caught Denis Lynch and All Star 5 after a superb round. Those four faults leave Lynch on 7.76 penalties in 24th place.
When it mattered the most, anchorman Cian O’Connor, as he has done so many times for Ireland, came home with a clean sheet on Good Luck to move up three places individually to seventh place on 2.25, and leave Ireland on 12.11 penalties overall, equal with Belgium.
Ireland are also sponsored by Equiline and afterwards team manager Rodrigo Pessoa said: “We are happy with the first two days, we had three really solid rounds today. Shane [Sweetnam] was super, he executed the plan really great and got us off to a perfect start. Denis [Lynch] was really unlucky to have a fence down. I thought he placed the horse really well and gave the horse every chance to jump the last fence but he just tipped it.
"Cian is very experienced, he knows the drill. This is not his first time at the rodeo, and he knows he is sitting on a super horse and it’s great to have them as an anchor. Most probably it will take at least two clear rounds tomorrow for us to have a chance to win a medal. We jumped two clears today, we need at least two more tomorrow.”
Pessoa also gave an update on Bertram and Hector van d’Abdijhoeve: “We have decided that in the interest of the safety of the horse and the confidence of the rider, Bertram and Hector will not jump tomorrow. The welfare of the horse is our number one priority.”
The Belgian team were the only ones not to add any penalties to their score from Wednesday when all four riders jumped clear rounds.
A masterclass of jumping from individual leader Peder Fredricson and H&M All In for Sweden moved the home nation into the team gold medal position on 8.21, while Switzerland lie in the silver medal slot on 11.15 penalties.
Germany’s Marcus Ehning stays in second place after another perfect round with Pret A Tout (0.59), just ahead of Portugal’s Luciana Diniz who jumped what looked like the easiest round of the day with the formidable chesnut mare Fit For Fun 13 (0.76)
Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat slipped from fourth overnight to 20th position after a fence down and a time fault with Bianca. Frenchman Kevin Staut moved up one place to fourth, but the French team were out of luck slipping down to eighth from second.
Italy are in fifth (15.25), and Germany sixth (15.52), ahead of Spain in seventh (23.85).
Just the top 10 teams go into tomorrow’s final round which will be jumped under the lights tomorrow evening at 8.15 local time.
Ireland's Richard Howley (Chinook) and Jenny Rankin (Benny's Legacy) jump in the Under 25 division this evening.
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