AN outstanding day of show jumping at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina, saw the home nation crowned the new world champions.

There was bitter disappointment for the Irish show jumping team however, as a seventh place finish meant they missed out on qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The final day saw the top 10 teams compete in the roasting hot temperatures and after the fourth line riders, USA and Sweden were tied on a score of 20.59 and for the first time in WEG history, the gold and silver medals were determined by a jump-off.

The American team of Devin Ryan (Eddie Blue), Adrienne Sternlicht (Cristalline), Laura Kraut (Zeremonie) and McLain Ward (Clinta) produced a zero score against the clock in a time of 100.67 to beat Sweden into silver.

The Swedish team of Henrik von Eckermann (Toveks Mary Lou), Malin Baryard-Johnsson (H&M Indiana), Fredrik Jonsson (Cold Play) and Peder Fredricson (H&M Christian K) fought back from seventh place after Thursday’s first round to end up with three clears in the jump-off, but in a slower time of 102.73 seconds. Germany took the bronze medal.

Ireland slipped from sixth place overnight to finish in seventh on a score of 39.12, 5.8 points behind the Cinderella story of the championships, Australia, and agonisingly missing out on that Olympic qualification.

Alan Wade’s course was big and technical but jumped better than the first round and yielded 15 clear rounds from the 63 starters.

Shane Sweetnam picked up nine faults with Chaqui Z, before Shane Breen was very unlucky to knock fence 12 aboard Ipswich van de Wolfsakker. Paul O’Shea was almost home when the penultimate fence caught him out aboard Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu and anchor man Cian O’Connor (Good Luck) was caught out at the last part of the combination.

A bitterly disappointed Rodrigo Pessoa said afterwards: “Well we certainly gave it a try, it’s tough… we have to digest it a bit. It’s really sour because on one hand we were really close, but I think we had the potential to be much better, we cannot be pressured like that from start to finish.

“In show jumping you have to jump clears. Sometimes horses, for some reason, they make mistakes. But when you give away so many rails then it’s too expensive, it’s just not good enough.

“We will look at everything and question every single move that we have made, but at the end it was just not enough, we just had too many mistakes, we can’t count how many rails we had over the three days, over the 12 rounds, it’s just a lot.”

Speaking about missing that Olympic qualification, Pessoa added: “I am disappointed because you know, Ireland has been chasing this for so long and now we just postponed this again, one more year of this agony, it would have been good to put it away this year and have a steady year next year to build a team.”

Overnight leaders Switzerland slipped to fourth place after Janika Sprunger had two shock refusal to be eliminated, ahead of The Netherlands in fifth place.

Cian O’Connor is lying in sixth place individually going into Sunday’s final on a score of 6.69. Germany Simone Blum leads the way (2.47), ahead of Austria’s Max Kuhner (2.97) and Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs (4.68) in third. With less than two fences between the top 10, Sunday is set to be another cracking day of jumping here in Tryon.

QUOTES:

ROBERT RIDLAND, USA CHEF D’EQUIPE: “This sport doesn’t get any better than that. I don’t want to wake up from this dream, this is what we do it for.”

ADRIENNE STERNLICHT, TEAM USA: “I’ve been all states of tears of joy. My best friends and family are here and I’m looking at this and thinking what the hell just happened! I am extremely emotional. It’s been a battle of overcoming my own mind. I am so grateful that Robert trusted me enough and McLain to put me on this team.”

DEVIN RYAN, TEAM USA: “It has been a very quick year, it’s flown by. A lot has changed over the last 12 months for me. It was my breakthrough year, nobody knew who I was [before this year]. It’s finally paid off a bit. This year is the first time I was ever on a team. The team starts with my family, my owners and all these guys sitting up here with me.”

MCLAIN WARD, discussing his influence on bringing first-timers Adrienne and Devin on to the team: “On Tuesday night when I was getting into bed with my wife, I said ‘what the hell have I done here’ but these guys came through brilliant. This team, this group, this is what is brilliant about America.”