Irish show jumpers battle to Olympic qualification

It may still be early in the 2022 RDS Horse Show week but during my half a century reporting the sport I have never been more proud of our show jumping team than last week as they bravely blazed their way to Olympic qualification at the World Championships in Denmark.

Watching it evolve over the three team days was like taking a Tayto Park rollercoaster ride.

One hour Michael Blake’s squad of Denis Lynch, Bertram Allen, Cian O’Connor and Daniel Coyle were on track to gain one of five Olympic slots for Paris 2024, the next moment one wondered how they could ever climb out of the depths that Dutch course builder Louis Koninckx had condemned them to.

Over the three team days, all four Irish contributed mightily to the final, and the very positive outcome. At crucial moments they came up with clears or slight time penalties to keep hopes alive.

But my Man of the Match has to be Bertram Allen. When Darragh Kenny’s horse Cartello was not on form Bertram got a late call-up with Irish Sport Horse Pacino Amiro, bred in Donegal by Simon Scott.

They made a huge contribution as they delivered two vital clears.

Primary goal

Team Manager Michael Blake had set Olympic qualification as a primary goal, “We want to get it done early as one of the top five teams,” he said.

Including one fast clear by Allen, the team put up a penalty score of 11.15 in the opening speed leg which left them in 11th place – a long way from the top five.

Thursday started with a bit of a dip as Denis Lynch and Brooklyn Heights had one down for a four, and Bertram came back with an eight.

But Cian O’Connor rose superbly to the occasion and delivered a brave and beautifully paced clear on C Vier 2.

When Daniel Coyle left all the fences up with only two time penalties, the Irish had climbed to ninth and made the vital cut of 10 going through to Friday’s final. But it was still a long, long way to the desired top five.

Ahead of them were world-class squads like Canada, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France and eventual champions Sweden.

In Friday’s final Denis had just one time fault, Bertram went clear. Cian returned with five. Daniel had two down and retired. So we added six and then we waited for fences to fall.

That they did to boost Ireland into a brilliant fourth place behind Sweden, Netherlands and only a fraction behind bronze medallists Britain. A great result! Now for the Aga Khan!

Highest placed Irish rider in the individual championship was Denis Lynch in 20th behind medal winners Henrik von Eckermann of the dominant Swedes. Jerome Guery (Belgium) and Maikel van der Vleuten (Netherlands).