The Irish showjumping team were denied victory in Longines League of Nations Final win by 0.23 seconds after a jump-off in Barcelona this afternoon.
At the culmination of an afternoon of high drama, there were no faults separating Michael Blake's men and Olympic champions Britain - both finishing on 16 faults over two rollercoaster rounds of jumping.
The biggest prize in international Nations Cup jumping would be decided by the jump-off, with Blake sending Billy Twomey and Jumping Jack Van De Kalevellai in for Ireland.
Ireland were in a six-way for second place at the halfway stage, after a clear round from Wexford's Bertram Allen and Qonquest de Rigo along with four fault scores from Michael Pender (HHS Los Angeles (ISH), Sean Monaghan (Toyger) and Twomey on Jumping Jack van de Kalevallei.
The second round, which featured just three riders from each team and with all scores to count, saw Allen give Ireland a huge boost when he completed a double clear performance with his nine-year-old gelding.
Monaghan repeated his first round score of four faults and when Twomey also finished his second round with just one fence down, Ireland concluded the second round with 16 faults.
As fences fell for many of the competitors in their second rounds, only Britain could match Ireland’s score and so a jump-off was required to see who would lift the trophy.
Twomey, with Jumping Jack van de Kalevallei, were selected to carry Irish hopes in the jump-off against Scott Brash with Hello Jefferson.
Twomey produced a brilliant clear in 38.42 seconds to put huge pressure on World No 5 Brash, who showed all his experience to stop the clock a quarter of a second faster in 38.19 to leave Britain as winners.
Ireland finished as runners-up while 2024 champions Germany filled third place on the podium.
An emotional Michael Blake, whose tenure as Ireland manager officially ends tomorrow after eight years in the role, said: "It really would have been perfect to have gone out with a win - especially in a competition like this. You could see by the line-ups here just how much the best nations in the world wanted to win it, and we gave it everything.
"It really was a brilliant performance from the lads, and to be beaten in a jump-off by less than a quarter of a second is a tough one to swallow at the moment but the overwhelming feeling is one of pride today.
