THE senior show jumping squad who will represent Ireland in the vital European Championships at Madrid, Spain later this month was named today by Team Ireland Equestrian’s show jumping manager Robert Splaine.

These championships represent the last chance for Ireland to qualify a team for next year’s Olympic Games in London. To qualify, Ireland must finish in the top three of those countries not already qualified. The countries that have qualified already are Great Britain (hosts), Germany, France and Belguim.

The squad, in alphabetical order, is:

Nicola FitzGibbon; Puissance
Denis Lynch; Lantinus or All Inclusive NRW
Shane Sweetnam; Amaretto Darco
Niall Talbot; Nicos De La Cense
Billy Twomey; Tinka’s Serenade

From this squad, Splaine will select a final team of four to compete in the three rounds of the championships, which begin on September 13 in the Spanish capital.

Robert Splaine said today: “'The year has gone well in the superleague and Ireland is again ranked fourth in the world at the highest level. However, qualification for London all depends on our performance on the day in Madrid. There are still very strong teams not qualified and I can see a huge battle emerging for the three remaining places,'” he said.

“We must focus on our own performance and If we can perform to our best we have a great chance of getting the job done, as we have proved on many occasions already this year.

“Billy and Denis have been in the top ten of the world rankings all year and have been doing a great job for the team despite their other commitments.

“Shane Sweetnam has been solid all year and his last team performance gave us a double clear in the Aga Khan in Dublin. Nicola has been solid on all of the few occasions she has lined out for us and Niall has been progressing the right way all year and was good at Rotterdam last week in both the Nations' Cup and the Grand Prix,” he said.

Robert Splaine