Murphy leads Irish Eventing Team to sixth in German Nations’ Cup

THE Irish Eventing team finished in sixth place in the Eventing Nations’ Cup in Aachen Germany, which finished this morning (Saturday) with the cross country phase.

Ireland was lying seventh after yesterday’s dressage and show jumping phase but today’s cross country phase, which took place in wet conditions, caused huge problems, with only one combination of the 42 starters finishing clear inside the time.

Ireland’s anchor man Joseph Murphy put in one of the best cross country rounds of the day when adding just 4.8 time penalties to his score to finish individual 11th on his 2012 Olympic mount, the Irish Sport Horse Electric Cruise.

The pathfinder for Ireland was Austin O’Connor on the Irish Sport Horse Ringwood Mississippi. He returned with no jumping penalties but just over 20 time penalties to record a solid start for Ireland.

Aidan Keogh and Sarah Ennis, who were both making their first appearance on a senior Irish eventing team both incurred 20 jumping penalties but got their horses home as eliminations and retirements accumulated on the course.

Eventing High Performance Manager Nick Turner said: “Overall I am pleased with how the event went for us. It was our first time to be invited to the event and the riders did a very good job. When you take the Germans out of it there was very little between the other teams. Joseph was outstanding today and Austin did a very good job as pathfinder. Sarah and Aidan showed great maturity on their team debuts to get their horses home on a course that caused massive problems. This event will really stand them in good stead for the future,” he said

The team competition was won by the home team Germany while Australia’s Christopher Burton won the individual competition.