On a day of days for Irish eventing, Ian Cassells brought home two medals from the World Championships in Le Lion d'Angers – Ireland’s first medal wins in 10 years.
Cassells, who has enjoyed a sensational season in the saddle which included a senior European Championship team silver medal, added another silver as well as a bronze in France this afternoon.
He finished runner-up in the six-year-old division at the FEI WBFSH Eventing World Breeding Championships for Young Horses on Rutland Flamenco and followed it up with a second podium on board Noa W in the seven-year-old division.
Cassells becomes the first Irish competitor to medal at the championships since Sophie Richards won bronze in 2015 and he couldn’t contain his excitement afterwards.
He said: "It’s been an amazing week – the mare (Rutland Flamenco) has tried so hard for me all week and I couldn’t be happier with her.
"We’ve only had her since the start of the year and have produced her quite slowly. Every time she’s run she’s done better and got more comfortable. She just keeps trying her best for me."
Lying in fourth position overnight in the six-year-old division, Cassells needed a clean round of jumping in the final phase and Rutland Flamenco delivered in spades, coming home faultless to finish on his dressage score of 28.9, just 3.3 penalties behind Belgium’s Lara De Liedekerke-Meier on Tara Van Het Leliehof.
There was even more work to be done in the seven-year-old category as he sat in seventh position going into today on his dressage score of 32.8. Adding just 0.4 time penalties to that tally, it meant there was no room for error for the combinations placed in front of him.
With poles dropping, Cassells continued to climb the leaderboard, with just Tom McEwen on Brookfield Danny De Muze and De Liedekerke-Meier to jump on Helios.
A clear from McEwen and just the one pole down from the Belgian meant a bronze for Cassells.
Daniel Coyle enjoyed a monumental week in the Major League Show Jumping event at Tryon Equestrian Center, securing four major results with four different horses.
The highlight was a five-star Winning Round success on Saturday, in which the Derry pilot led home an Irish 1-2 with the resurgent Farrel, as Andrew Bourns proved the closest chaser on board Perte Totale De Res Nova.
Coyle also had a runner-up finish in the five-star FEI MLSJ individual competition the previous night with the Queen of Lothlorien, Legacy, and bagged a brace of two-star victories with Calippo 57 and Daydream, the latter in Friday’s two-star Grand Prix.
Shane Sweetnam and Conor Swail joined Bourns as five-star silver medallists, with Sweetnam guiding the Patrick Connolly-bred marvel James Kann Cruz (ISH) to a fifth straight five-star Grand Prix podium and eighth in all this year.
