Shane Sweetnam and Daniel Coyle both shone for Team Ireland as they finished among the top three on the board in the qualifiers for the Individual Show Jumping final at Paris 2024.
The duo, riding James Kann Cruz and Legacy respectively, both secured two of the three fastest clear rounds of the day among the 73 of 74 contenders that participated at Versailles to ease into tomorrow's final round in style.
However, Cian O’Connor, riding Maurice, missed out on joining his team-mates in the final by just three positions and less than two seconds.
The trio of Irish riders had finished seventh collectively in the Team Showjumping final last Friday but three days on, Sweetnam, Coyle and O'Connor were all aiming to make the top 30 in the individual competition for a place in Tuesday's final round.
Sweetnam, aboard James Kann Cruz, was the first of the Irish on the running order, riding in 13th overall and he made an excellent start by setting the fastest clear run of the first 52 riders with no faults in a time of 73.35, virtually guaranteeing his place in the final with more then three-quarters of the the competitors still to come.
"He jumped amazing," Sweetnam told RTÉ Sport. "Important to get a clear round there.
"[He was] Bred in Galway by the Connolly family, an amazing horse and it keeps getting better and better.
"The team [event] was disappointing, but we were knocking on the door until the very end and that’s all you can really ask. I’ve been at this a long time so to be there or there abouts, hopefully next time we can be there again and get podium."
Derry native Coyle was the 37th rider to enter the fray with horse Legacy and followed in Sweetnam's wake with another clear round, slotting into second with a marginally slower time of 73.64.
France’s Julien Epaillard on Dubai Du Cedre, 53rd into the fray, eventually overhauled Sweetnam for top spot with a clear run in 73.07 seconds.
He and the Irish duo were the only ones under the 74.00 mark.
Ireland’s third rider, London 2012 bronze medallist O’Connor, had been due to be the 63rd entry on the bill but had to start later after horse Maurice lost a shoe.
After eventually having the shoe restored, O’Connor and Maurice had four faults in a time of 75.15 to sit right on the cusp of advancing in 30th at that stage of competition but eventually finished 33rd to miss out on the final.
Germany's Philipp Weishaupt on Zineday took 30th and last final spot in 73.42.
"He jumped really well... and has been a fantastic horse all year for me. Just touched one fence off today" - No regrets for Cian O'Connor despite narrowly missing out on the show jumping final on Maurice
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 5, 2024
📱 Updates https://t.co/7J2WfVU0Tm#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/yU7XLgBDAY
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.
