THE Irish show jumping team took the runner-up position on the podium in the €300,000 Longines FEI Challenge Cup final in Barcelona, Spain.

Cork-born Shane Sweetnam finished with one fence down and a time fault when first to go for Ireland with the Spy Coast Farm-owned Chaqui Z, before Wexford’s Bertram Allen and the grey mare Molly Malone, owned by Ballywalter Farms, lowered a single fence to finish with four faults.

Tipperary’s Shane Breen and the Team Z7-owned stallion Laith then produced a foot-perfect clear round – one of just two clear rounds on the night.

Denis Lynch and the Thomas Straumann-owned All Star were last to go in the competition and, having jumped clear in Thursday’s first round, were in the running to take a bonus of €50,000 if they could manage to return with another clean sheet.

It wasn’t to be however when Lynch came home as the discard score with nine faults. Ireland were already assured of second place before Lynch entered the arena. Ireland finished on a total of nine faults, with victory going to the massive underdogs United Arab Emirates who didn’t touch a pole finishing with just three time faults.

Irish team manager Rodrigo Pessoa’s native Brazil finished third on 11 faults. The home team from Spain finished fourth ahead of Britain in fifth, New Zealand in sixth and Italy in seventh.

The Irish senior Show Jumping team is sponsored by The Underwriting Exchange and Devenish.