HORSE Sport Ireland will name the riders chosen to represent Ireland at the Rio 2016 Olympics on June 7th, the organisation has confirmed.

Ireland has qualified seven equestrian places for Rio 2016, including a full team of four eventing riders, individual show jumping and dressage riders, along with securing one paralympic place.

While there can be little doubt that Judy Reynolds and Helen Kearney will be named for the dressage and para dressage spots, the nominations for the sole show jumping spot and the eventing team are a matter of huge debate.

Bertram Allen secured Ireland’s only show jumping place at Rio earlier this year, with Denis Lynch coming agonisingly close to securing a second place.

Allen, Lynch, Cian O’Connor and Greg Broderick have been named by team manager Robert Splaine as the four riders in contention for the individual place and all four riders are named on the Nations Cup team for the upcoming Nations Cup of Belgium, along with rising star Anthony Condon.

All eyes will be on the performances from Molly Malone V, Good Luck, All Star 5 and MHS Going Global as their jumping prowess will be Splaine’s yardstick for Olympic selection.

Equestrian and boxing were the only sports in which Ireland won an Olympic medal at London 2012 and, with its current group of riders regularly winning at the highest level, equestrian sport provides a realistic medal hope again at Rio.

Impressive recent results at Nations Cup level for the Irish eventing team, including a win in last season’s Dutch Nations Cup finale, has given real hope that Ireland can improve on its team fifth place finish at London 2012. A squad of 10 eventing riders have been in intense training since the beginning of 2015, under the watchful eye of team manager Nick Turner.

Joseph Murphy, Aoife Clark, Sam Watson and Cathal Daniels were part of the Team Ireland line-up at the media day in Abbotstown.

In dressage, Kildare’s Judy Reynolds recently finished eighth in the World Cup final against the top riders in the world and has set several new Irish records in the past 12 months with Vancover K.

Ireland has also qualified one paralympic athlete for Rio. Helen Kearney won two individual medals and a team medal in London. Kearney and her Paralympic teammates got off to a good start in 2016, by finishing third in the first Para Dressage Nations Cup of the season in France recently.

Horse Sport Ireland also used the occasion to unveil to the Irish media, a new campaign being rolled out by the International Governing Body, The FEI, to promote equestrian sport globally in the lead up to Rio. The campaign is called 'Two Hearts' which focuses on the unique bond between horse and rider.