IRISH chef d'equipe Rodrigo Pessoa tonight (Wednesday) named his team for the Longines FEI Nations Cup World Final in Barcelona which starts tomorrow and represents Ireland's last chance to qualify a show jumping team for Tokyo 2020. The Irish team has been drawn eighth to go.

The Irish team is:

Waterford’s Peter Moloney with Chianti’s Champion – owned by Team Harmony

Limerick’s Paul O’Shea with Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu – owned by Machu Picchu Partners LLC

Offaly’s Darragh Kenny with Balou du Reventon – owned by Ann Thompson

Meath’s Cian O’Connor with PSG Final – owned by Ronnoco Jump Ltd

Eighteen teams from all over the globe, who qualified for the Barcelona finale based on performances in the FEI Nations Cup series over the summer, will fight for the title of 2019 FEI Nations Cup World Champions, while seven of those teams will also be involved in what promises to be a titanic battle to claim the one final Olympic team place on offer.

Ireland have been drawn eighth to jump and will be up against teams from Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Britain, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and the home team from Spain.

Seven of those teams will fight it out for the one final Olympic team qualification place available, with Ireland in a battle with Norway, Portugal, Italy, Colombia, Egypt and Spain.

Third time lucky

Speaking on the eve of the first competition in Barcelona, Rodrigo Pessoa said: “We’ve missed out already on two Olympic qualifications, so this is our third chance and hopefully it will be a good one!”

The opening competition of the finals starts tomorrow Thursday at 1pm Irish time with all 18 teams taking part in a one round contest. The top eight teams from that competition will go forward to Sunday’s Longines FEI Nations Cup Grand Final which offers €1.25 million in prize money. The remaining 10 teams will go into Saturday’s Challenge Cup Final which has €300,000 up for grabs.

Live coverage

Free live coverage of tomorrow’s (Thursday) opening round of the Longines FEI Nations Cup Final will be shown on Team Ireland Equestrian Facebook page from 1pm Irish time and also on FEI.TV and FEI YouTube & Facebook.

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