THE Irish show jumping team has been withdrawn from the team competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Sadly, the team suffered a disappointing start when Shane Sweetnam and the 12-year-old gelding Alejandro were eliminated after a fall on course. Sweetnam was the alternate rider and came in for the team competition in place of Cian O’Connor and Kilkenny.

After hitting the first part of the triple combination, the gelding seemed to lose confidence and paddled through the Liverpool oxer at fence nine before falling to the ground. Both horse and rider were okay after the fall and walked out of the arena.

In the new Olympic format, with just three to a team and no drop score, Sweetnam will be given four penalties more than the worst finishing score and the squad will automatically be placed below every other team that have scores counting from all three riders.

“Up to the triple combination he felt good. He pulled the show and overreached and got unsettled. He is a very careful horse and got a bit rattled, a bit upset, and then we were going nowhere and it was over,” Sweetnam said.

Team vet Marcus Swail advised management the horse would not be able to jumping in tomorrow's final should the team make it through. “He fell onto his left side and he is a little bit uncomfortable in his left front fetlock and has some scrapes on his left side. He is a bit stiff and sore, nothing concerning in the long-term, but my assessment this evening unfortunately was that it wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about continuing with him should we have been in a position to qualify for tomorrow and that was my advice to Michael Blake.”

The decision was then made to withdraw Bertram Allen (Pacino Amiro) and Darragh Kenny (VDL Cartello) from the competition.