Darragh Kenny adds to Irish wins with Belgian truimph

Offaly’s Darragh Kenny scored Ireland’s second international Show Jumping win of the day, when he took victory in a 1m50 Speed Class at Knokke in Belgium.

Kenny guided the 10-year-old gelding, Global Van T Braunerthof to the fastest clear round in 62.23 seconds, to finish over a second ahead of Mexican runner-up Santigo Lambre with Fortin. Cork’s Billy Twomey also finished among the prizes, taking sixth place with Tin Tin.

Earlier Cian O’Connor and the mare Be Gentle recorded their second win in 48 hours at the five-star show in Aachen, Germany.

Both Kenny and O’Connor have been named in the Ireland squad for next Friday’s Aga Khan Nations Cup competition at the Dublin Horse Show, where they will be joined by Bertram Allen, Denis Lynch and Rio Olympics-bound Greg Broderick.

Meanwhile at the three-star French show in Megeve, Galway’s Michael Duffy finished as runner-up in the Longines World Ranking class with Belcanto, while in the two phase class at Knokke, Tipperary’s Tomas Ryan finished third with Cady B.

In the DHL Eventing Nations Cup at Aachen in Germany, all three Irish team riders produced clear Show Jumping rounds. Nick Turner’s side were in eighth place after the morning Dressage but moved up three places to fifth thanks to clear jumping performances by Aoife Clark with Wasting Light (ISH), Sarah Ennis riding BLM Diamond Delux (ISH) and Elizabeth Power with Soladoun.
The final Cross Country phase of the Aachen Eventing Nations Cup takes place on Saturday.