“IT’s been a long three of four days.” I concur, McLain.

Yesterday was day seven of my WEG campaign. I have never experienced anything quite like the sport here over the last week – so much excitement, so much emotion, and some disappointment too.

All of that leads to complete exhaustion. When you come out the wrong side of the result, by a single place, that is hard, and I imagine the Irish show jumpers woke up feeling weary this morning.

They missed out on a qualifying place for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games by one place. Their faith was sealed when Australia, who I am now referring to as the ‘Cinderella’ story of the show jumping compeititon, jumped a clear round before Cian O’Connor went into the ring. Even a clear from O’Connor wouldn’t have been enough.

In the post medal press conference, where there were all kinds of tears of joy, USA’s chef d’equipe Robert Ridland said something very interesting – “You can’t win it on the first day, but you sure can lose it.”

Ireland just didn’t get off to a flying start and had to chase the competition from the very beginning. Despite producing some amazing round of show jumping, little mistakes kept them out of contention.

The preparation wasn’t perfect for these Games, a late change two weeks out when Darragh Kenny’s horse had a colic operation meant Shane Breen was a late call up. Breen admitted himself that six weeks ago the Games weren’t even on his agenda.

It is difficult when the main team gets unravelled but Pessoa and his team – Michael Blake, Gerry Mullins and Taylor Vard – won’t take too much peace from that. Our next chance for Olympic qualification is at the European Championships in Rotterdam next year, where a top three finish of the teams not yet qualified will be needed.

On a much lighter (and embarrassing) note… I got a little bit excited when watching Cian O’Connor’s round yesterday and as he attempted to jump out of the combination (the fence he knocked), I gave a little jump of encouragement in the chair.

When I went to sit back down, the chair had gone back up and I ended up on my behind! Thankfully, the majority of people were too engrossed in the rest of Cian’s round to notice, but FEI’s Shannon Gibbons did have a good giggle, after making sure I was okay of course!

Focus now turns to Cian O’Connor and Good Luck in tomorrow’s individual final. They go in to that in sixth place.

SPECIAL MARE

I met a very special equine yesterday morning – the amazing Cristalline, who later went on to win a gold medal under Adrienne Sternlicht.

Known as Stella, she is looked after by Kildare native Emma Chapman and her boyfriend Sean Kissane (pictured left with Adrienne) from Cork. Emma has been working in the USA for almost 10 years, and previously groomed for Irish show jumper Ronan McGuigan. Before that she was part of the Barry O'Connor/Conor Swail team in Ireland and worked with Alex Duffy.

I met with the couple this morning for an upcoming feature and noticed Emma's 'Stella' ingraved bracelet which Adrienne bought for her. It's a lovely story and I am looking forward to writing it when I get home.

Mark Bellissimo held a drinks reception for the media yesterday evening. He acknowledged the setbacks and the numerous mistakes he has made and said if these Games are remembered for all the bad things that have happened, then shame on us.

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” he said to the group of media, who he was no doubt attempting to win back over after a messy start.

Keep your eyes peeled for a feature on Bellissimo and the facility here at Tryon in The Irish Field in the coming weeks.

One more day to go. I am still predicting an Irish medal...