THE first Nations' Cup show jumping competition of 2010, to be held in the Abu Dhabi desert venue of Ghantoot, sees Ireland pitted against ten other international teams in Friday's clash. The Irish team of Cameron Hanley, Dermott Lennon, Cian O'Connor and Billy Twomey will also compete in five other international competitions at the five-star show, culminating in Saturday's 300,000 euro Grand Prix.

FOR the first time, Tipperary's Denis Lynch has overtaken Jessica Kurten in the Rolex World Jumping Rankings, which were published today (Thursday).

THOUGH consistently in the prize money yesterday, Irish riders failed to break through with an outright win at the five-star show in Zurich until this evening (Saturday), when Jessica Kurten delivered the goods on 'Miribel D'Auvray' in the Wegelin Challenge speed competition.

IRISH riders took their fair share of the prize money on offer at the first day (Friday) of the five-star Zurich show in Switzerland. Cork's Billy Twomey fared best in tonight's Rolex Grand Prix, taking eighth place with Sue Davies's 'Tinka's Serenade' and just under three thousand euro in prize money. The Grand Prix winner was Britain's Ben Maher with 'Wonderboy III', who scooped up the hotly-contested first prize of 24,000 euro.

IRISH riders have won five of the top international show jumping Grands Prix on the global calendar during the last five weeks, and will be trying for a sixth trophy at Zurich this weekend. Denis Lynch, Jessica Kurten and Billy Twomey are the Irish trio at the five star Swiss show, bidding to add to Ireland's unprecedented run of victories, and all except Twomey will field three horses.

UPDATE: SEE JESSICA'S WORLD CUP WIN ON EUROSPORT 5.25pm WEDNESDAY SKY CHANNEL 415. Female riders took the top three places in this afternoon's Rolex World Cup Qualifier competition at Leipzig in Germany, but it was Ireland's Jessica Kurten who claimed the 39,600 euro top prize when she triumphed over Australia's Edwina Alexander and France's Pénélope Leprovost in a 15 horse jump-off. The five-star competition saw 40 starters, but Kurten was the only Irish rider to make it to the jump-off when both Cian O'Connor and Denis Lynch faulted in the first round.

IRISH riders claimed the weekend's richest two prizes in world show jumping when Cork's Billy Twomey won the Amsterdam Grand Prix this afternoon (Sunday), half an hour after Jessica Kurten had triumphed in the German World Cup Qualifier in Leipzig.

IRELAND'S Jessica Kurten finished second in the Leipzig Championship competition at the German World Cup show this afternoon (Saturday). One of just seven combinations to go clear from a starting field of 46, the 40 year-old Irish rider and Lady Georgina Forbes's mare 'Castle Forbes Myrtille Paulois' trailed World No. 1 Albert Zoer from the Netherlands by just eight-tenths of a second in the final round.

CORK'S Billy Twomey recorded his second top five place of the day at Amsterdam when he finished fourth tonight (Saturday) in the speed class with Sue Davies's chestnut mare 'Tinka's Serenade'. The 32 year-old rider was almost three seconds off the pace of Netherlands winner Leon Thijssen and 'Vesuvius', who took the 6,000 euro prize.

THE FEI Tribunal has announced its decision in the case of the British Equestrian Federation’s (BEF) challenge to the FEI Bureau resolution relegating the British team from the FEI Nations Cup™. The Tribunal has decided not to intervene in the Bureau’s decision of 17 September 2009 relegating the Great Britain, Belgium, and Italian teams and has therefore declined the BEF’s challenge. As a consequence, those three teams remain relegated to the FEI Nations Cup™ Promotional League for the 2010 season.