Ireland finishes joint third at Lisbon Nations’ Cup

THE Irish quartet of Billy Twomey, Niall Talbot, Bertram Allen and Ross Mulholland finished equal third of 11 teams who took part in tonight’s Nations’ Cup in Lisbon, Portugal, completing the two rounds on a total of 24 faults.

The opening round saw eleven teams compete in the early evening, with just the best eight going forward to the second round, which was held two hours later under floodlighting.

Lying equal fifth at the halfway mark, with the team’s only clear round coming from Niall Talbot and Nicos de la Cense, Ireland fought back in the second round to claim equal third position alongside Brazil, with the British team finishing in second place on 22 faults, but the winning Belgian team uncatchable with a total of just four faults.

The Irish final round saw Billy Twomey and his new horse Diaghilev improve their score from eight faults to four, while Bertram Allen and Romanov made good an unfortunate 13-fault first round by delivering a superb clear on their second outing.

Robert Splaine, Team Ireland’s show jumping manager said: “Lisbon was a satisfactory result over what proved to be a difficult course by a team mostly made up of new combinations.”

The Irish team scores were:
Billy Twomey/Diaghilev 8/4
Niall Talbot/Nicos de la Cense 0/8
Bertram Allen/Romanov 13/0
Ross Mulholland/Carpe Diem 4/11.

Lisbon is part of the Europe Division Two in the Furusiyya Nations’ Cup series, and Ireland’s result will not affect the country’s scoring in Division One, which finishes with the Aga Khan Trophy competition at the Dublin Horse Show in August. Ireland currently lies in third place in Division One, with two ranking competitions still to go.