Robert Splaine names Irish team for Saturday’s Spanish Nations Cup in Gijon

Horse Sport Ireland Show Jumping Team Manager Robert Splaine has announced the Irish team for tomorrow’s (Saturday) five-star Nations Cup at Gijon in Spain.

Ireland have been drawn second of the 12 teams taking part and will line out as follows:

Cian O’Connor with Callisto, owned by Ian O’ Grady, Philippe de Balander & Ronnoco Jump Ltd
Anthony Condon with Aristio, owned by Anthony Condon & John Hales
Conor Swail with Hetman Of Colors, owned by Ilan Ferder, Tal Milstein & Stefan Maelstaf
Billy Twomey with Diaghilev, owned by C.T Payne

Gijon is part of the Furusiyya Nations Cup Europe Division 2 in which Ukraine currently lies in pole position. Ireland will not be competing for points at this event having already guaranteed its place in the Furusiyya Nations Cup final in Barcelona next month. Ireland have also confirmed their position among the top tier of World Show Jumping again for 2017.

Robert Spaine said:

“Gijon five-star CSIO is well recognised as being one of the toughest Nations Cup’s outside of the Furusiyya Division 1 league. We will field four accomplished horsemen tomorrow, two of which are mounted on new horses, Conor Swail on Hetman Of Colors and Cian O’Connor on Callisto with both horses making their Nations Cup debut. Anthony Condon with Aristio have outstanding recent five-star Nations Cup form under their belt and Billy Twomey with Diaghilev comes here on the back of a clear round which helped us achieve an excellent result at the British Nations Cup in Hickstead recently.”

Saturday’s Gijon Nations Cup gets underway at 12.45pm Irish time.