Irish Show Jumping team unchanged for Sunday’s massive Olympic decider in Barcelona – Darragh Kenny scores Queens Cup win

Irish Show Jumping manager Rodrigo Pessoa has named an unchanged team for tomorrow’s (Sunday) Olympic qualification showdown in Barcelona, where Ireland will bid to secure a team place at the Olympic Games for the first time since Athens in 2004.

Having safely negotiated the first hurdle in Barcelona – Thursday’s opening qualifying round of the Longines FEI Nations Cup where Ireland finished fifth of the 18 teams to make it through to Sunday’s final – Ireland will now hope to finish the job on Sunday at the Spanish City which has witnessed many memorable sporting occasions over the years.

Ireland, sponsored by Devenish and The Underwriting Exchange, will be fourth to jump in the Nations Cup Final and line out as follows:

Waterford’s Peter Moloney with Chianti’s Champion – owned by Team Harmony
Limerick’s Paul O’Shea with Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu – owned by Machu Picchu Partners LLC
Offaly’s Darragh Kenny with Balou du Reventon – owned by Ann Thompson
Meath’s Cian O’Connor with PSG Final – owned by Ronnoco Jump Ltd

Sunday’s Longines FEI Nations Cup Grand Final offers €1.25 Million in prize money along with the coveted Olympic qualifying place and along with Ireland, the list of teams hoping to be crowned 2019 Nations Cup Champions includes France, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany Italy and Colombia. In order to secure Olympic qualification, Ireland will have to finish ahead of the Italians and the Colombians in a competition where all teams will start the day on a zero score.

Speaking ahead of the final, Rodrigo Pessoa said:

“After three years of of a campaign [to achieve Olympic qualification] it all comes down to tomorrow. We expected Italy to make the final but Colombia also performed very well and we now know that we have to beat those two teams to reach the Olympics. We are up for the challenge and ready to go for it.”

The Longines FEI Nations Cup World Final starts at 2pm Irish time and will be shown live only on FEITV.

Darragh Kenny wins Queens Cup

Offaly’s Darragh Kenny has continued his superb form in Barcelona by claiming a stunning win in today’s (Saturday) Queen’s Cup – Segura Viudas Trophy. Riding the SHL Farm-owned mare Sweet Tricia, Kenny was among 14 combinations who made it into the jump-off. A fast time in the opening round saw Kenny drawn second-last to go against the clock and he produced an outstanding round to take victory with a clear round in 37.11. Kenny finished a full two seconds ahead of Swedish runner-up Henrik Von Eckermann with Fancy Me, while Portugal’s Luciana Diniz took third spot with Fit For Fun.

Darragh Kenny this week moved inside the top 10 on the Longines World Rankings and the Offaly rider had pinpointed this competition as one he could win:
“It was a class that I aimed for this week, I really thought she [Sweet Tricia] was capable of winning it and she pulled it off. She is an incredible horse she is so so careful and naturally quick and I just had to not screw it up.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s big Nations Cup final, Kenny added:
“We have a lot to do tomorrow. We are going to be under a bit of pressure but we are well able for that and we have a good solid team and hopefully we can pull it off. We will all be trying, we all have good horses and are good riders so we have just gt to do our best and see what happens.”

The Irish Show Jumping team is sponsored by Devenish & The Underwriting Exchange
Equiline – Official athlete clothing supplier of Team Ireland Equestrian