Ireland move to fourth at European Championship, with Hughes Kennedy and Lynch inside top 10

On a rollercoaster day for in A Coruna, Ireland made a medal move in the FEI Jumping European Championship.

Michael Blake’s team of Denis Lynch, Seamus Hughes Kennedy, Bertram Allen and Darragh Kenny produced the goods on a dramatic afternoon in Spain as they moved from seventh to fourth overall in the team standings.

Pre-competition on day two of action in Spain, overnight individual leader Daniel Coyle withdrew his fantastic mare Legacy from the remainder of the competition.

While it wouldn’t have an impact on Ireland’s score tally, there was a sense that perhaps the team was galvinised by the withdrawl and they produced a zero score for round one of the team final, keeping the boys in green on a team total of 8.39 and a fourth-place position at the end of day two.

Horse Sport Ireland High Performance Show Jumping Director Blake said: “That was great – we knew that a zero score was required today, otherwise a medal was realistically out of our grasp, with the way the teams above us are jumping.

“The lads took that pressure on their shoulders and delivered out there, and as a result it is most definitely all to play for.”

First Lynch and Vistogrand repeated yesterday’s clear round, then Hughes Kennedy did the same with the Ennisnag Stud-bred ESI Rocky (ISH).

With combinations from teams above the Irish faltering, and Britain suffering a blow as Matthew Sampson was eliminated with Medoc De Toxandria, a door had been left ajar with two Irish combinations still to jump

Allen was third in with Qonquest De Rigo and like yesterday, it was just one pole falling as he finished on four faults. Over to Kenny and Eddy Blue, who delivered the all-important faultless round to leave Ireland on their overnight score and fighting for medals.

Britain remain in the lead on 3.96, with Germany second on 4.19 and Belgium in third, less than a pole ahead of Ireland on 4.61.

Individually, two of the Irish, Hughes Kennedy and Lynch are inside the top 10, with Hughes Kennedy in ninth and Lynch in tenth. Kenny sits in 25th position and Allen in 43rd.

Earlier, Coyle made the decision to withdrawn Legacy from competing, with the mare’s interests at the forefront of the decision.

Coyle said: “Ariel and I both feel that if we jump all of the rounds here, there will be nothing left for the rest of the year. We are now looking forward to the Dublin Horse Show next month and Legacy competing in front of the home crowd at the RDS.”

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