Ireland's Betram Allen Takes Silver Medal in European Junior Championships

In his last month as a Junior Rider, Wexford's Bertram Allen this afternoon (Sunday) took the Individual Silver Medal at the Junior European Show Jumping Championships in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain, aboard Ballywalter Farms's grey mare Molly Malone.

European Junior Team Gold winner in 2012, the 17 year-old lost out in a three-way jump off today to Italy's Emanuele Massimiliano Bianchi and Cupido Z by less than a second.

With three riders on a total of four faults after three rounds of jumping in the individual championships this weekend, Allen, who turns 18 in August, was pitted against the Italian combination and Lisa Nooren from the Netherlands aboard the bay gelding Zigo.

Allen, second to jump, easily beat Nooren's time on a clear round, but Italy's Bianchi then also went clear, stopping the clock fractions of a second faster than the Irish effort to clinch the gold medal, with the Netherlands taking bronze.

The Wexford rider has had a glittering career, from multiple European Pony and Junior gold medals through recent senior international Grand Prix wins, to emerge as one of Irish show jumping's brightest hopes for the future.

In the European Junior Team event in Spain this weekend, under Chef d'Equipe Comdt John Ledingham, Allen also delivered a clear round and a four fault round. With a total of 20 teams competing, the Irish quartet , which included Tom Foley, Jeremy Sweetnam and Michael Duffy, finished a creditable seventh against stiff opposition.