Ireland still in Olympic hunt after first day of European championships

WITH two clear rounds on the board, Ireland finished the first round of European championship show jumping at Aachen in Germany today in eighth place of 22 teams competing.

More importantly, Investec Ireland’s overnight ranking puts the country just one place outside the Olympic qualification zone with two days of team jumping still to go.

Ireland also saw 20 year-old Bertram Allen’s fast round of jumping on Ballywalter Farms’s Molly Malone put him in fifth individual place, just over two seconds adrift of French leader Penelope Leprovost on Flora de Mariposa, in a 94-strong field.

Robert Splaine’s team opened with eight faults from Denis Lynch and Thomas Straumann’s stallion All Star 5 but followed this with Allen’s clear and then a further clear from Tipperary’s Greg Broderick and Caledonia Stables’s Irish Sport Horse MHS Going Global.

Anchorman, Meath’s Cian O’Connor on Adena Springs’s stallion Good Luck, had one unlucky rail down to finish on four faults.

(For full European championship rules click here)

#GoTeamIrl

Bertram Allen and Molly Malone competing at Aachen today