Ireland kicked off their eventing quest for glory at Rio today with Padraig McCarthy leading the way as one of the first competitors in action in dressage. McCarthy finished on 46.80 penalties on board Simon Porloe, while Clare Abbott and Euro Prince followed up with another excellent score, just behind McCarthy on 47.00.
At the end of day one Ireland are in 6th place in the team standings which are headed by Germany, with Australia 2nd and Great Britain 3rd.
In the individual ranking McCarthy holds 12th place amongst the 33 competitors that have completed dressage, with Abbott just behind in joint-thirteenth.
German favourite Michael Jung has a battle on his hands, with his dressage score of 40.90 on Sam placing him third behind Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt (37.00) and Australia’a Christopher Burton (37.60).
The dressage phase will be completed tomorrow, with Ireland’s Jonty Evans and Cooley Rorkes Drift in action at 2.32pm (Irish) and Mark Kyle partnering Jemilla at 6.10pm
McCarthy will be hoping Ireland can keep up the good work and be in contention when the cross country stage kicks in on Monday. “It’s nice to get a really solid start,” he said after his performance today. Josh Tobin
