MICHAEL Blake’s Irish show jumping team of Daniel Coyle, Capt Brian Cournane, Dermott Lennon and Conor Swail, finished an impressive third of 10 teams in last night’s (Saturday) BMO Nations Cup at Spruce Meadows in Canada.

Two of the Irish team completed the two rounds without knocking a fence, with both Daniel Coyle with Farrel and Capt Brian Cournane with Armik, both picking up just time faults on both occasions.

Dermott Lennon with Gelvins Touch (ISH) was the discard score in the first round with 12 faults, and improved second time out with an eight fault score. Conor Swail with Koss Van Heiste had six faults on their first attempt, and retired after having two fences down when last to go for Ireland in the second round knowing that they couldn’t improve the Irish final score of 19 faults.

An excellent performance from the Belgian team saw them win at Spruce Meadows for the very first time when finishing on just four faults. The home team from Canada took runner-up spot on 14 faults just ahead of Ireland.

Sweden finished fourth ahead of Mexico in fifth and France in sixth while Italy, USA, The Netherlands and Germany failed to make it through to the second round.

Spruce Meadows will host the CP International today (Sunday) which is part of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping with a massive $3 million up for grabs.

The Irish Show Jumping team is sponsored by Devenish & The Underwriting Exchange

Equiline – Official athlete clothing supplier of Team Ireland Equestrian

Source: Horse Sport Ireland press release