Ireland have crashed out of the European Championships at Mannheim in Germany and will now definitely not have a showjumping team at the Beijing Olympics next year.
Team Ireland needed a top 10 placing in Thursday's first round of the Nations Cup to make the cut for Friday's team medal decider but none of the Irish had a clear round and a tally of 31.68 faults dropped Ireland from 7th overnight down to 13th.
Ireland's hopes sagged early on as Cameron Hanley and SIEC Hippica Kerman accounted for 12 faults, while Marion Hughes and Heritage Transmission lowered four poles and added a time fault to finish on 13 faults.
Irish Independent Echo Beach and Cian O'Connor, drafted in on
Tuesday from fifth man position, dropped their only fence of the
championships to end on four faults, while Jessica Kurten and Castle Forbes Libertina also finished on four faults.
These faults were added to penalty points from Wednesday's speed competition to arrive at the final team score.
Jessica Kurten is now in 22nd position individually and Cian O'Connor 28th. The Individual European Championships finish on Sunday.
Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) Chairman Charles Powell said: ‘I am disappointed for the team, but I am fully supportive of Team Manager Robert Splaine and the EFI Jumping Committee, who did their very best with the horsespower available to them.’
With the European Team Championships behind them, Ireland's showjumpers will now have to focus on maintaining their lead in the 2007 FEI Nations' Cup Series, to ensure re-entry into the Samsung Super League for 2008.
SHOW JUMPING RESULTS: FEI EUROPEAN JUMPING CHAMPIONSHIP MANNHEIM, GERMANY 14-19 AUGUST 2007
Rankings after First Round Team Championship
1) GERMANY 5.18 penalties
2) NETHERLANDS 7.37 penalties
3) SWITZERLAND 8.13 penalties
4) GREAT BRITAIN 10.43 penalties
5) BELGIUM 12.45 penalties
6) SWEDEN 14.65 penalties
7) NORWAY 17.26 penalties
8) SPAIN 17.69 penalties
9) UKRAINE 17.96 penalties
10) ITALY 18.53 penalties
11) AUSTRIA 19.03 penalties
12) FRANCE 24.07 penalties
13) IRELAND 31.68 penalties
S.I.E.C. HIPPICA KERMAN; Cameron HANLEY 12/
HERITAGE TRANSMISSION; Marion HUGHES 13/
IRISH INDEPENDENT ECHO BEACH; Cian O'CONNOR 4/
CASTLE FORBES LIBERTINA; Jessica KURTEN 4/
14) DENMARK 37.97 penalties
15) RUSSIAN FEDERATION 56.88 penalties
16) BULGARIA 81.21 penalties
17) POLAND 100.75 penalties
18) ROMANIA 50 penalties (did not complete)
