Elliot Names Olympic Shortist

Team Ireland Equestrian’s Eventing High Performance Manager Ginny Elliot has named a shortlist of ten riders and 11 horses for Olympic selection.

At present Ireland is assured of a team of at least three riders at the games, but this could increase to four or five on June 17th, depending on whether other countries who secured places have sufficient eligible combinations to take up the places.

Elliot will nominate the combinations for selection to the Olympic Council of Ireland on July 2nd following the event at Barbury Castle in Great Britain.

The shortlisted combinations are (in alphabetical order):

Aoife Clark/Master Crusoe, Capt Geoff Curran/Shanaclough Crecora and The Jump Jet Jayne Doherty/Ravenstar Sarah Ennis/Sugar Brown Babe Mark Kyle/Coolio Joseph Murphy/Electric Cruise Elizabeth Power/September Bliss Michael Ryan/Ballylynch Adventure Camilla Speirs/Portersize Just a Jiff Sam Watson/Horseware Bushman

Speaking after her announcement Ginny Elliot said that the decision to even reduce the list to ten riders had been difficult due to further strong performances at Tattersalls at the weekend.

"The reality is that all of the riders performed very well at the weekend,under real pressure, as they knew places were on the line."

"The combinations I have named have all done very well and the final selection looks like it will cause me several sleepless nights but it is brilliant to have real choices," she said.

"Now that we have a team the key issue will be to select the appropriate mix of combinations to maximise our chances of winning a medal at the games.

“Obviously the number of places we end up with will be influential in devising this strategy and it will be crucial to get at least one more place and it would be great to get a full five," she said.