HOLDING joint fifth place at the halfway mark, Ireland's show jumping quartet of Shane Breen, Shane Sweetnam, Denis Lynch and Billy Twomey staged a remarkable second-round comeback to claim equal second place at the finish of the German Nations' Cup at Aachen tonight (Thursday), just one fence behind the winning Netherlands team.
With driving rain making the huge course progressively difficult to negotiate, and with the disadvantage of being first to jump, the Irish team had just one first-round clear, from Cork's Shane Sweetnam and Spy Coast Farm's Darco stallion 'Amaretto Darco', and finished on 12 faults at the break.
But under Robert Splaine's management the team kept their nerve and returned with clear rounds from Shane Breen on Carmel Ryan's Carthago Z stallion 'Carmena Z' and Denis Lynch on Thomas Straumann's gelding 'All Inclusive NRW'.
Cork's Billy Twomey was unlucky to pick up four penalties at the water jump with Sue Davies's mare 'Tinka's Serenade', as was Sweetnam with 'Amaretto Darco', but with the discard score taken into account, Ireland completed the competition with just four faults added, a 16-fault tally that put them, along with Britain and Germany, just one fence behind the Dutch winners.
Afterwards Team Ireland Equestrian's show jumping manager Robert Splaine said: "It was a great performance from the team here tonight, and a privilege to fly the Irish flag on the world stage. We were a little short of what was required in the first round, and it was disappointing that we didn't have a fence down in the second round but twice fell foul of the water jump.
"However we are still heading north on the series leaderboard and I suppose we are mathematically safe from relegation. The strategy from the beginning of the year has been to focus on Olympic qualification at the European Championships in Madrid in September, and in order to do that we have been using untested combinations in the Nations' Cups from time to time in order not to put too much pressure on the horses most likely to line out at Madrid.
"Some of these teams, however, have performed extremely well, and have contributed to us staying second on the Superleague table. We have our sights set on Madrid now, but everyone is of course looking forward to putting on a good show for the home crowd at Dublin in August."
SHOW JUMPING RESULTS: CSIO5* AACHEN GERMANY JULY 12-17 2011
Nations Cup of Germany
International Jumping Competition
Table A In Two Rounds
Art. 264.3.+ Annex VIII, Art. 6
1m60
Thursday, July 14, 2011
1) Netherlands 12 faults
=2) Ireland 16 faults
Shane Breen/Carmena Z 8/0
Shane Sweetnam/Amaretto Darco 0/4
Denis Lynch/All Inclusive NRW 4/0
Billy Twomey/Tinka's Serenade 8/4
=2) Great Britain 16 faults
=2) Germany 16 faults
5) France 20 faults
6) United States 32 faults
7) Denmark 85 faults
8) Belgium Eliminated
Eight nations competed
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| Robert Splaine |