Lynch Fifth in French World Cup Competition

Ireland's Denis Lynch finished in fifth place in the World Cup competition with Thomas Straumann's gelding Abbervail van het Dingeshof, a tap of the last fence denying him a certain win.

Fifth to go of eight through to the jump-off, the Tipperary rider made a brave attempt to better the 34.5 seconds of German leader Hans-Dieter Dreher and the stallion Magnus Romeo, and though he managed to shave a quarter of a second off Dreher's time he paid a price of four faults for leaving the very last pole on the floor.

Dreher collected 49,500 euro for his win, while Lynch picked up 9,000 euro. However, the points gained tonight propel the Irish rider to sixth in the Western European World Cup rankings, on a total of 53 points.

The 2012/2013 Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping league final is in Gothenburg, Sweden in April, with one more qualifying round to go, at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in March.