Ireland in touch with medal places after Dressage at European Eventing Championships in Poland

The Irish Eventing team are in seventh place of 13 teams following the dressage phase at the 2017 European Eventing Championships at Strzegom in Poland. Ireland are on a combined score of 135.20 penalties, just under 25 penalties off the bronze medal position in a tightly-packed leader board.

Sarah Ennis (pictured) with Horseware Stellor Rebound (ISH) finished with an excellent score of 38.60, putting them into 14th place individually out of 76 starters. Austin O’Connor and Kilpatrick Knight (ISH)(TIH) are in 31st place on 45.20, with Michael Ryan and Dunlough Striker (ISH) in 51st place on 51.40. Joseph Murphy with Sportsfield Othello (ISH) are in 67th on 54.80. Irish individual rider Patricia Ryan with Dunrath Eclipse (ISH) are in 46th place with a score of 50.40.

The German team hold a commanding lead on a score of just 87.70, with three of their riders Bettina Hoy, Ingrid Klimke and Michael Jung also holding the top three places individually. Hoy and her horse Seigneur Medicott produced a record breaking score of 24.60. France are currently second in the team competition just ahead of Britain in third. However with the Cross Country phase to come on Saturday followed by Show Jumping on Sunday, the leader board could see plenty of changes over the coming two days.

Irish team manager Sally Corscadden is looking forward to the next phase, which she believes will play a huge part in the overall competition,

“With Cross Country to come tomorrow we are not too far off and have kept in touch. All our riders rode well. There were a couple of mistakes which did prove costly. Sarah Ennis had a superb test and as a combination they are getting more and more consistent and I think the judges will see that and I can see them scoring even higher in the future.”

Corscadden added,

“The Cross Country course is very intense and technical. There are a lot of difficult lines and obtuse angles – a lot of obstacles to jump in 10 minutes and it will require real focus. It’s a proper Championship course. I can see plenty of places with the potential to pick up 20 penalties so this course is going to be very influential and it is not going to be a Dressage competition that’s for sure. It was 31 degrees here today when Sarah was doing her test. We are due to get some rain tonight and tomorrow and that might cool things down a bit.”