Local duo help Ireland to bronze at Nations Cup

Showjumping: There was a significant Sligo and Mayo input to Saturday’s third-place finish for Ireland’s showjumping team at the opening regional qualifier of the Longines EEF Nations Cup in Kronenberg, The Netherlands.

The Irish were fourth of the thirteen teams into the arena, which didn’t give pathfinder Richard Howley much by the way of information when he went into the ring on the nine-year-old Zodiak du Buisson Z.

The Enniscrone native, buoyed by a three-star 1.45m class victory earlier in the day on Petitfour Vd Wareslage, had no concerns however, and was in perfect synchronicity with the grey, who is owned by HK Horses.

Burke and Express Trend followed up and Knockmore man, Michael G Duffy and Clitschko 17 (owned by Claremorris native Carl Hanley, Niall Talbot and Duffy himself) repeated the trick with a very professional round.

While it was a positive result from a 13 team competition, which was won in a jump-off against Canada by the hosts, there was a tinge of disappointment around it from an Irish perspective, given that Michael Blake’s unit had posted four clears in the first round.

Howley and Duffy both recorded solid rounds at the second time of asking but each ended on four faults, to leave Ireland on a final tally of eight. They did just enough to hold off a rallying Spain, as well as USA, France and Belgium for third on a better aggregate time.

“Third is never a bad result but I thought we would have done a little better in the second round,” said Blake afterwards. “We had a very strong team and things didn’t just stack up for us. Richard nudged the first fence and we were under pressure a bit from there.

“Michael’s horse is a quality horse but is just back from injury. He hasn’t been in the ring for over a year so that might have been a factor.” The second qualifying event for Region West takes place in Roeser in Luxembourg on June 7, with the semi-final in Deauville a fortnight later and the final in Warsaw on September 6.