Crunch time for Ireland’s show jumpers starts at 7:45am Irish time on Wednesday in Gothenburg.
After a patchy 2017 Nations Cup campaign, all eyes will be on Rodrigo Pessoa’s quartet beginning their vital four days of top jumping action at the FEI Longines European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Though the new chef d’equipe has had only a short time to co-ordinate Ireland’s resources and build a proven championship squad, there’s little doubt that he will be judged on how Bertram Allen, Cian O’Connor, Denis Lynch and Shane Sweetnam perform under pressure this week.
Pessoa himself has said that the real target for this season is the European Championships, so fans and pundits alike will be expecting him to deliver a better-than-average result.
He said from Gothenburg this week: “All five horses look in really great shape. We are all happy we have brought them this far and we are where we want to be.
“We will take each day as it comes and hope everything works out our way. A major championship brings different challenges to Nations Cup jumping. You have to pace yourself, starting with the speed competition on the opening day.
“We have a very experienced group of riders and we are confident we can do well.”
Here’s how it will work over the days ahead.
WEDNESDAY 07:45am
First Qualifying Competition – Individuals and Team
Speed competition Table C
THURSDAY 12:30pm
Team Competition Round 1
Two different rounds – 1 and 2 not against the clock
After two days of jumping, the ten best teams of the 17 go through to:
FRIDAY 7:30pm
Team Competition Round 2 – Final
Two different rounds – 1 and 2 not against the clock
Team medals.
The top 25 individual riders go through to:
SUNDAY 1pm
Longines FEI European Champion – Individual Final
Two different rounds not against the clock
Individual medals.
Ireland is drawn 10th to compete of the 17 nations taking part, and will line out as follows:
Bertram Allen – Hector Van D’Abdijhoeve
Cian O’Connor – Good Luck
Denis Lynch – All Star
Shane Sweetnam – Chaqui Z
Reserve: Mark McAuley – Miebello
Live results at this link
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Jack Burns
We Live Horse 