Third place for Irish Eventing team in Aachen Nations Cup

By Irish Field Contributor on 16 July 2016

Aoife Clark, Sarah Ennis and Elizabeth Power were in eighth place after the dressage phase, moved into fifth after the showjumping and onto the podium after the cross country

DESPITE not having the luxury of a discard score for the entire competition, the Irish Eventing team produced a miraculous performance to take third spot on the podium in today’s Nations Cup at Aachen in Germany.

The Irish trio of Aoife Clark with Wasting Light (ISH), Sarah Ennis with BLM Diamond Delux (ISH) and Elizabeth Power with Soladoun, were in eighth place after Friday morning’s opening dressage phase.

Unlike most of the other nations who had four team members – giving them a discard score, Ireland were faced with a mountain to climb knowing that all their scores would count in show jumping and cross country.

However Ireland climbed the leaderboard on Friday evening when all three went clear in the show jumping phase, finishing the day in fifth overall. Even better was to come in Saturday’s cross country as the trio again finished without jumping penalties to take third place on the final podium.

Australia were crowned winners of the eight nation contest, with the home team from Germany in second, just ahead of Ireland, who pushed New Zealand into fourth and Britain into fifth.

Horse Sport Ireland Eventing high performance manager Nick Turner said: “The three girls all rode phenomenally well and to finish third overall without a discard score was quite an achievement. They deserve a huge amount of credit to jump clear in show jumping and cross country here in Aachen where the courses were very technical.”

Germany’s Michael Jung topped the individual standings with FischerTakinou. Aoife Clark was the best placed Irish rider in 13th, two places ahead of Elisabeth Power in 15th, while Sarah Ennis also finished inside the top 20.

Rio-Olympics-bound Irish Dressage rider Judy Reynolds was also in action in Aachen and scored an impressive ninth place finish in today’s Grand Prix Special. Reynolds and her Olympic partner Vancouver K posted a score of 73.325% in the five-star contest.

Ireland is also represented in show jumping at Aachen this week where Cian O’Connor has already notched up two wins with Be Gentle. He is joined at the German venue by Wexford’s Bertram Allen and Mayo’s Jonathan Gordon with Sunday’s Aachen Grand Prix offering a cool €1 Million in prizemoney.