Eventers ninth, with O’Connor the leading Irish individual

Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue (Photos:  Pierre Costabadie/Sportsfile)

Albert proud of quartet’s efforts despite what-might-have-beens

Horse Sport Ireland’s High Performance Eventing Director, Dag Albert has declared himself proud of the quartet of riders that contributed to the Agria Irish Eventing Team’s ninth place at the Olympics in Paris, while also expressing disappointment they were unable to record a better overall finish.

There were many positive performances from the team, led by four-time Olympian Austin O’Connor, who was the highest-ranked Irish athlete in the individual rankings in 17^th.

Susie Berry took 31^st place in her first Olympic Games and with Sarah Ennis having to step down when the Irish-bred Acton Lady M (ISH) picked up a minor injury in the course of producing a fantastic cross-country round yesterday, London Games heroine, Aoife Clark stepped in very effectively in today’s show jumping round, although needing to introduce a substitute cost 20 penalty points.

Great Britain took team gold, with hosts France claiming silver and a Japanese team that included Irish Sport Horse MGH Grafton Street bagging a sensational bronze.

Meanwhile legendary German rider, Michael Jung was crowned individual Olympic champion for the third time in four Games, going clear on Chipmunk FRH in the show jumping final this afternoon to add to his titles from London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro four years later.

Ireland were always playing catch-up after a below par overall return from the dressage but Albert was heartened by the battling effort thereafter.

“I’m disappointed, yes, but I’m also extremely proud of the guys – they gave everything they had to achieve the best possible result but we just didn’t get the rub of the green,” said Albert today.

“We had a mountain to climb after dressage – and we felt unlucky to have been on that score at the time. Sarah’s horse had spooked and Austin felt he should have had a lower score, and then obviously Sarah’s horse getting injured sucked the life out of the team a little bit.

“But they are so resilient, and maintained their standards and I thought they all jumped great today – Aoife and Susie had unlucky fours and Austin was desperately unlucky with his two down.

“I’m delighted for him, though, that he finished on a high, and I do believe there’s so much more to come.

Susie Berry riding Wellfields Lincoln

“It’s Susie’s first Olympics and Sarah’s mare is only 10 so she has a really bright future, and Austin is Austin – he has been delivering with Colorado Blue for a while now and is a real leader, so while I’m disappointed now, I’m still optimistic for the future with this team.”

O’Connor, who finished 13^th at the Tokyo Games with Colorado Blue three years ago, had catapulted into contention yesterday when combining with the evergreen 15-year-old known as Salty to record a stunning clear on a very difficult cross-country track.

That moved him to 14^th but the Corkman was left wondering what might have been after dropping the last two jumps in the morning’s show jumping round, when it looked as if he and Colorado Blue were about to go clear.

Had they done so, the 49-year-old would have moved into the top ten and been firmly in the mix for a medal in the afternoon’s final individual show jumping round.

The eight faults ended those aspirations but O’Connor illustrated the character he has become renowned for with a wonderful clear round in the afternoon’s individual final.

The pumped fist that followed showed what it meant and the raucous reception from the galleries was an indicator of his popularity and the size of the Irish contingent.

“I’m relieved, to be honest,” said O’Connor. “He showed that all the ability and the want is still there – there would have been people questioning if he was finished if he hadn’t jumped clear in the final, after the two down earlier.

“He had actually jumped very, very well until late on. It really was just two fences too many. There wasn’t really any analysing to do, either. Basically we just didn’t get high enough over the last two and that was it.

“But after that, he’s shown that he’s a long way off being finished, there’s no two ways about it, and it’s a great way to wrap Paris up.”

Summing up the games as a whole, O’Connor felt unlucky, from a team and personal perspective.

“It’s been a rollercoaster really. I felt very hard done by with the scoring in my dressage, and then had a great day yesterday. Obviously I was disappointed with the first round today but then very happy with our round the final.

“From a team perspective, we were unfortunate too – obviously having to swap in a substitution is costly, points wise, but Aoife Clark has been a brilliant teammate all week and she got her chance to jump today.

“We’ve great team spirit and everyone has done their very best – we brought the best we had, and it’s onwards and upwards now.”

Susie Berry and Wellfields Lincoln had a little rattle at the first but the Banbridge pilot excelled in settling her partner into a lovely rhythm and they never looked in trouble until having the first part of the penultimate double down for four faults and an overall finish of 31^st.

“What an incredible opportunity and experience it’s been,” Berry stated. “I’m a little bit gutted he had a fence down, to be honest. It’s a clever track, and that line to the double is tricky. It’s tight up to the end of the arena and it comes up quite quickly so there isn’t much time to adjust.

“It’s big in there and well designed – it’s a technical and tricky, but it needs to be for my lad to drop one, and I’m so proud of him.”

The first Olympics where alternates were in play and it was a huge advantage to Ireland to have someone of the experience of Aoife Clark – seventh in London 12 years ago – stepping in as a substitute, as well as a show jumper of the calibre of Sportsfield Freelance.

The pair were the Irish pathfinders and looked very comfortable before falling foul of the same obstacle knocked by Berry and Wellfields Lincoln.

Aoife Clark trots up Sportsfield Freelance

Kildare native, Clark said: “I was gutted for Sarah and her mare after they had put in such a good performance on the cross-country. Thankfully it’s just a small injury and she’ll be fine. I’ve been ready all week in case something like this happened – that’s the nature of the role and also the hard thing about the role, but I was just happy to be able to jump today to help the team.

“I love, love, love this little mare – she’s such a trier. She was nervous going in but we’ve got such a good partnership but she took a deep breath and trusted me. She busted a gut, she really did.

“I’ll have to take the blame for the four faults – I just got her in a bit deep to the fence. It’s a tricky last line and I was a little worried that taking seven strides to it could be a bit short so I sat up a bit too much and getting two deep by taking eight. But it’s a good round for the team and I’m delighted with that.

“It’s a tricky course – I actually watched a few of the earlier rounds but they didn’t go very well so I gave up and decided to just ride my own round and stick to the plan, which worked out okay.”

BREEDING

ACTION LADY M (ISH) – 2014 mare by Pilot Blue (KWPN) out of Action G (ISH) by Acorado (HOLST). Breeder: Susanne Macken. Owner: Susanne Macken and Andrew Cox. Rider: Sarah Ennis (IRL)