IRELAND are lying in 10th place after round one of show jumping at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina.

Today’s first round saw 25 teams and a total of 124 athletes from 49 nations line out. The Irish team of Shane Sweetnam, Shane Breen, Paul O’Shea and Cian O’Connor lie on a total of 10.12 penalties overnight. Switzerland are out in the lead after three fantastic clear rounds on a score of 2.64, ahead of The Netherlands (4.35) and Brazil (6.42).

Today’s class was a one round speed, with every fault converted to penalties.

As Ireland’s pathfinder, Shane Sweetnam got the horrible draw of first into the US Trust arena at 9am this morning. He got the team off to a perfect start with his own and Spy Coast Farms’ 12-year-old stallion Chaqui Z (Chacco-Blue x Quinar Z) when clear in 80.19 seconds. That was ultimately good enough to see him in 15th place individually.

“It’s a difficult position obviously to go first. The horse jumped great,” he said afterwards. “I had a plan, we all discussed it, take risks but not too many risks. There were a couple of places, maybe to the last fence, where I could have done one less stride, and after the water I got a little wide. But everywhere else I wouldn’t have planned to be any quicker, especially the first day, there is a lot of jumping left.”

Shane Breen was next up and looked under pressure when his 10-year-old gelding Ipswich van de Wolfsakker (Carembar de Muze x Quick Star), owned by Breen Equestrian and Jos Lansink Horses, took a spook before the starting beam.

They knocked the vertical coming out of the second double in a time of 84.26 and with four seconds to add, making it a score of 88.26.

Speaking to The Irish Field following the round, he said: “It was tough. Ipswich got quite wound up when he went in there. He had a big spook before I even got through the start beams, so my goal was to try to settle him.

“It wasn’t the jumps, he just got a bit wound up himself so I’m not disappointed, I’m very pleased, he does want to jump clear rounds and he’s a great horse. I think tomorrow is a new day, I’ll do a little bit of flat work again the morning with him and don’t be surprised if he’s jumping clear rounds from now on, he just needs to calm down.”

Making his championship debut, USA-based Paul O’Shea took the blame for knocking the first fence in what was an otherwise good round with Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu (Silverstone x Matterhorn). Four penalties were added to his time of 83.88 to leave him on an overnight score if 87.33.

“My horse jumped very good, I was too slow to number one and I left him a bit too much to do, so I have to take the blame for that, but he recovered well then and tried hard. Hopefully that’s our bad luck out of the way now, he really felt like he was in great form,” he said

Cian O’Connor and the Adena Springs-owned stallion Good Luck (Canturo x Furioso II) looked like they were on their way to a clear round when the third from home, an oxer after a roll back, hit the floor. With four to add, he finished on 81.72.

“He jumped well. My tactics were to have a good cut, and I would have been lying in third or fourth place had he been clear. So even when a fence down its only puts me less than a fence off the winner, so it’s all to play for,” O’Connor said.

In terms of the team standings, he added: “We could have done with one more decent score really. Shane got us off to a great start and we just needed one more to be up there, but it’s all to play for yet I guess.”

When asked if he was happy with how the day went, chef d’equipe Rodrigo Pessoa said, after a pause: “Yes and no!”

He was disappointed with O’Shea’s rail. “The rail of Paul, that was a giveaway. We have rails, you know that’s show jumping, but we can’t leave anything, we can’t do giveaways because other guys who are going for medals are not doing that so we have to correct that for tomorrow.

“All in all it’s okay, but there is one or two things that we could have collected and you would be one place overall that we could be better. We are going to be chasing but we can do that. We did it last year, why not do it again. We want to be able to control a little bit more after the first day, but it’s okay, it’s the way it goes.”

Tomorrow’s round will determine which of the top 10 teams will progress to Friday’s final round, where the medals will be won and the top six will earn their qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS

Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat won today’s Table C when second last into the arena with the 12-year-old mare Bianca (Balou du Rouet x Cardento) and he now sits on zero penalties after today's scores are converted. His time of 76.33 just demoted Brazil’s long-time leader Pedro Veniss and Quabri de l'Isle (Kannan x Socrate de Chivre) to second place (0/76.68).

Australia’s Rowan Williams took third place today with an excellent round in 76.95 with Blue Movie.

Sweetnam was the best of the Irish in 15th place and his is now on a score of 1.93. Cian O’Connor is in 23rd (2.69 penalties), ahead of Paul O’Shea in 62nd (5.50) and Shane Breen in 68th (5.96).