IRELAND'S show jumping team finished ninth in the final of the European Championships at Madrid, Spain, this evening, but team member Billy Twomey qualified for Sunday's Individual Final by finishing in the top 25.

In an exciting battle between Europe's top ten teams, where rankings changed every few minutes, Germany finally triumphed to take the European Gold Medal, while France took Silver, and Great Britain narrowly pipped overnight leaders The Netherlands for Bronze.

By finishing in fourth, however, the Netherlands took one of the three available Olympic places, and Sweden and Switzerland claimed the other two, finishing in fifth and sixth respectively, leaving Ireland without a team ticket to London in 2012.

Ireland's opener, Shane Sweetnam and 'Amaretto Darco', made two mistakes to finish on eight faults today, while Nicola FitzGibbon and 'Puissance' had 20 faults. Denis Lynch produced Ireland's best round with four faults on 'Lantinus', while anchorman Billy Twomey and 'Tinka's Serenade' had a disappointing 12 faults after a clean sheet on Thursday.

However, Twomey's low penalty score over three days of competition still left him in 18th overall, which means he qualifies as one of the top 25 riders to go through to Sunday's individual final at Madrid.

Shane Sweetnam/Amaretto Darco Day 2/3 - 8.00/8.00, total 19.46
Nicola FitzGibbon/Puissance Day 2/3 - 21.00/20.00, total 50.74
Denis Lynch/Lantinus Day 2/3 - 9.00/4.00, total 21.71
Billy Twomey/Tinka's Serenade Day 2/3 0.00/12.00, total 12.95