THE Longines FEI European Championships in A Coruña, Spain got off to a fabulous start for Ireland on Wednesday when Daniel Coyle stormed to victory in the opening competition. Coyle is riding as an individual and now sits top of that leaderboard with Ariel Grange’s mare Legacy, while the Irish team are in seventh place after a solid first day.

Coyle was the 67th rider into the arena at the Spanish venue with his Olympic partner and, without taking the trickiest turn of the day back to the spooky wall at fence six, he kept up the pace all around Santiago Varela’s track to cross the finish line in 73.93 seconds and go straight to the top of the leaderboard. With 22 left to go, only Germany’s Richard Vogel and United Touch S came close, also breaking the 74-second barrier (73.96) to sit in second.