Shane Breen has moved into the top ten in the Western European League division of the Longines FEI World Cup series following his seventh place finish with Golden Hawk in yesterday’s round in Lyon.

Breen earned 10 points for Sunday’s placing, adding to the 9 he collected last week in Helsinki, and now occupies 9th position overall.

Denis Lynch comes straight into the standings in 16th place after netting 13 points for yesterday’s fourth place finish with All Star in what was his first appearance in the current series.

Next best of the Irish are Cian O’Connor and Darragh Kenny, both of whom have also contested just one round, O’Connor placing 10th in Oslo with Good Luck and Kenny ending up with the same placing in Lyon yesterday on Go Easy de Muse, leaving both riders sharing 26th on the league table with 7 points each.

The Western European standings are headed by Swiss rider Romain Duguet (37 points), ahead of Belgian Pieter Devos (28) and Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (25) edging third.

In the North American-Eastern division there are no Irish riders in the top 20 but three are positioned just adrift. Shane Sweetnam is in 23rd with 9 points, while Conor Swail and Richie Moloney are part of a three-way tie for 24th with 8 points each.

American Kent Farrington heads the standings on 42 points, with compatriot Audrey Coulter in second, also on 42. Farrington is awarded first place because of a better ‘highest-placing’ record which is used as a tiebreaker where applicable. Another American, Laura Kraut, occupies third position with 30 points.

Later this week the FEI will launch its latest monthly Longines Rankings which reflect rider performances worldwide across all ranking events, including the World Cup series.

Mike Dunne