Fourth for Ireland in Longines League of Nations final

The Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping Team finished fourth in the final of the inaugural Longines League of Nations in Barcelona this afternoon.

Michael Blake’s team of Denis Lynch, Daniel Coyle, Mikey Pender and Cian O’Connor scored a total of 20 faults, leaving them behind winners Germany on 12, The Netherlands on 16 and Sweden also on 20 faults.

It was the culmination of an excellent campaign in which Ireland topped the league table, and Blake was ultimately satisfied with the competition as a whole, while left feeling that the final was one that got away from his team.

He said: “Not to be today, we had some bad luck at critical times and made some unforced errors, which just left us with that little bit too much to do.

“Credit to the lads, though, they really dug in and never stopped trying to the end and we’ve had an excellent League of Nations season.”

Ireland got off to the perfect start as Tipperary’s Lynch and his 11-year-old bay  Vistogrand jumped brilliantly for a clear round, just inside the time allowed, in 74.92 seconds.

It had looked plain sailing for Mikey Pender and HHS Calais (ISH) as they navigated their way around the arena and were clearing coming out of the triple.

Unfortunately for the combination it went wrong from there as HHS Calais refused at the next before Pender brought him back around for a 16-penalty finish.

With pressure now on Daniel Coyle and Legacy, a clear round was needed and that’s what they duly delivered. The combination who lit up the Paris Olympics from an Irish standpoint were faultless for a clear round, well inside the time, to ease the pressure on the team.

The two clears rounds from Lynch and Coyle meant O’Connor and Fancy De Kergane could send Ireland into round two on a perfect zero score and joint first with Germany and The Netherlands.

Unfortunately, the nine-year-old who has jumped so many clears in Nations Cups this year made a couple of uncharacteristic errors and finished his round on eight faults.

They were the eight faults Ireland tallied going into the break and for round two Blake chose Lynch, Coyle and Pender as his trio.

Lynch kept things together as first-line rider, dropping just one pole with Vistogrand to move Ireland to a score of 12 faults.

12 became 20 after Pender’s second round as, having looked comfortable, they also dropped the plank before an unlucky four at the last fence.

Coyle was last in for the team as Ireland sat in fifth place in the standings, eight faults behind the leaders. If they were to have any chance of a podium finish, nothing other than a double clear would do.

Already Longines League of Nations Horse of the Year, Legacy added yet another perfect round to her resume and keep faint Irish hopes alive. The double clear also meant Coyle shared the impressive €200,000 prize for completing both rounds of the final without penalties.

Those hopes of winning outright ended when Richard Vogel went double clear on United Touch S to guarantee Germany at least second place, leaving the pressure on the Dutch.

Harry Smolders couldn’t get the job done, having  four faults on Uricas v/d Kattevennen to leave Germany out on their own to become champions.