Ireland has qualified as one of the top 10 teams through to Friday’s medal decider for the Olympic showjumping at Paris 2024.
Pathfinder Shane Sweetnam and the classy grey James Kann Cruz opened proceedings with a four-fault round, just hitting an early rail at the first part of the double.
A foot-perfect clear came next from Ireland’s second line rider and Olympic debutant Daniel Coyle riding uber mare Legacy, who is owned by her rider and Ariel Grange.
Competing at his fourth Olympic Games, anchor rider Cian O’Connor and Maurice then added five penalties to Ireland’s team score as one of several combinations to succumb to the middle element of the triple combination, just adding a time-fault, too.
But a team total of nine secured a sixth place finish for Ireland which put them comfortably through to Friday’s team final, where every nation starts with a clean slate to decide the medals.
“Daniel’s clear was sensational,” said Cian. “That was amazing stuff.”
“It’s so different in the three-man format because you’re afraid of things like, you saw Peder Fredricson just nipped out at the wall, or rushing the horse too much,” said Cian, who recently represented Ireland at his 150th Nations Cup. “So as the competition unfolded, we knew we just wanted to be safe and get round in one piece. To finish in the top 10 was the aim of today – whether you’re first or 10th only really determines the order for tomorrow – so because it’s back to a clean slate, we weren’t putting ourselves under too much pressure. We’ll have a good chat tonight and hopefully we can jump a few more clears tomorrow.
“It was a serious course, very well built,” added Cian. “I suppose what’s hard for us is that normally you have that 1.50m speed class on the first day at these championships where you can get your horse going and get them forward, and then you settle them back and jump the Nations Cup. Whereas even though we did a warm-up class yesterday, it’s only six or seven jumps, in an empty stadium, so it’s not the same. So this is really the horses’ first competition in there – it’s very different from other championships and I think that’s hard.
“But all the horses look happy, they look well, and the facilities here are excellent – the warm up arenas, the stables with the air conditioning. It’s a wonderful place for horses.”
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