THE Irish eventing team are less than one show jump off the podium at the FEI Eventing World Championships after a cracking day of cross-country competition in Aachen, Germany where they were one of the standout teams with four clear rounds.

Britain has taken a hold of the gold medal with a team score of 75.6, three fences ahead of the home nation of Germany on 90.4. Switzerland is sitting in bronze on 106.5, just 3.6 penalties ahead of Ireland (110.1).

Ireland started the day in seventh after dressage but four phenomenal performances saw them climb up the leaderboard. Ian Cassells put in the perfect pathfinder round aboard Ber, Fiona and Gerry Leahy’s 12-year-old gelding Millridge Atlantis to pick up just 7.2 time penalties. He sits in 30th place overnight.

Next out was Aoife Clark with the 11-year-old gelding Full Monty de Lacense, owned by the Ace of Spades Syndicate. They completed with one of the rounds of the day around Giuseppe Della Chiesa’s (ITA) course, picking up just 1.2 time faults.

“He’s some horse, and he feels like he’s getting better and better. I could have cruised round inside the time, I was saying ‘whoa’, but in my head I was thinking, ‘I’m on the team, be clear before being fast’, and actually the last couple of fences, I took his rhythm away and should have let him go. But he’s been amazing,” Aoife said afterwards.

She added on the track: “It is a racetrack. You’ve got to get up on your minutes early. Fence five doesn’t ride brilliantly but other than that you just need to be forward and confident and give them time to see the questions.” Aoife has moved up to 12th place from 32nd.

Austin O’Connor insured the team a good score when cruising around with the experienced CCI5* winner Colorado Blue, owned by The Salty Syndicate, with just eight time faults. They are in 21st place individually.

O’Connor commented: “We're very much in the mix as a team which is great. Personally, I just made a decision at 24 to go long; I just felt it was slightly catching up with him. You know, it'd be a lot more of an intense type track than he'd be used to. It’s quite twisty and turn-y!”

Padraig McCarthy completed a perfect day when clear with his home-bred championship debutant MGH Zabaione, owned by the rider, Diane Brunsden and Peter Cattell. They added 7.6 time penalties to sit 28th overnight.

“It's a great pleasure to have bred this one and have him here at 10 years old, and what a performance for Team Ireland; everybody clear. I think we're probably the only nation that brought all the horses clear across country and that's why it's so special to ride at a championship with Team Ireland.”

Ireland’s individual rider Georgie Goss and Kojak also went clear around the track to pick up 12 time penalties in 32nd place.

The individual leaderboard changed hands with Germany’s Michael Jung taking over the gold medal position from his compatriot Julia Krajewski. Riding his Paris 2024 Olympic champion fischerChipmunk FRH, Jung delivered a master class in cross-country riding to go clear and inside the time, taking the lead on their dressage score of 23.0.

Ros Canter was also one of just six to go inside the time and she sits second with Lordships Graffalo on 23.4. Compatriot Laura Collett and London 52 were equally impressive, adding just 0.8 time penalties to finish on a total of 23.6.

The medals will be decided in Sunday’s final jumping phase, when combinations return to the Main Stadium in reverse order of merit from 13:00 (CEST).