Murphy’s pride at Individual Paralympics Grade I ninth-place finish

Michael Murphy and Cleverboy after their Grade I test in Versailles at the 2024 Paralympics

Michael Murphy was delighted to finish ninth place in the Para Dressage Individual Grade I competition after scoring 70.417% at Versailles this afternoon.

Multiple world and European medal-winner Murphy and his mount Cleverboy put together a superb test on the 17-year-old at the Paralympics, and finished ninth of 22 overall.

He faced an anxious wait for qualification to Saturday’s Freestyle as he lay in fourth position immediately following his test, with some big names to come and only eight to qualify.

First, Italy’s Carola Semperboni and Paul went above Murphy, then world number one Mari Durward-Akhurst, leaving the Irishman in sixth place with five of the 22 combinations still to come.

Italian Sara Morganti and Mariebelle were next into the arena and they catapulted themselves into the silver medal position to leave Murphy lying in seventh position with four more to come.

Rihard Snikus from Latvia, who won double silver at the Tokyo Paralympics, then put in a dazzling display to move into the lead.

That shifted Murphy to eighth place with just three combinations to come including perceived main danger to qualification, Singapore’s Laurentia Tan, who was the penultimate rider to compete.

Agonisingly, Tan and Hickstead finished above Murphy, who missed out on qualification by less than half a percentage point.

Despite not qualifying for the Freestyle, there was pride in abundance with the performance.

Describing the test as ‘the ride of my life’, Murphy described how it made up for his disappointing finish at Tokyo three years ago.

He said: “The first day in Tokyo didn’t go to plan, I lost a rein and Cleverboy really looked after me that day, so it was really nice to go in on day one this time and ride properly, especially in such an amazing arena. I’m feeling incredible.

“In the four years I’ve been working with Cleverboy he has taken me around the world, and to heights I could never have imagined. To be able to go into an arena like that and perform so well together, I’m so happy.”

Para Dressage High Performance Director Debora Pijpers added: “I honestly couldn’t be happier with Michael’s performance out there – I don’t think he could have done much more, to be honest.

“They showed fantastic rhythm and flow and a tremendous suppleness throughout the test. And the stretch was also brilliant.

“We must remember, for someone with Michael’s physical impairment it’s very difficult to do that stretch at such a high level.

“Obviously there’s a little bit of disappointment that Michael was so close to qualifying for the Freestyle, because they performed so well, but it just shows how fierce the competition was out there that such a great test missed out.

“But Michael is very happy with his test and as a team we are all happy with it. He could do no more.”