Twomey Withdraws From Last Rounds Of World Cup Final

Despite qualifying for Easter Monday's penultimate round of the show jumping World Cup Final at Lyon, Ireland's Billy Twomey this afternoon declared that he was withdrawing from the competition.

The Cork-born rider, who is Ireland's only representative at the prestigious event, said today: "Considering I'm four fences off the leader I decided to save Tinka for another day. There's Grands Prix and Nations' Cups on the horizon, and considering her age I feel this is the right decision."

Twomey and Sue Davies's 17 year-old Tinka's Serenade had finished eighth in the opening competition of the Final on Friday, and on Saturday, despite having two rails down in the first round of the class, were still ranked equal 17th in the 38-strong table.

The top 30 riders achieved qualification for the first of Monday's two final rounds, so Twomey was well within the classification zone. He would had to have finished in the top 20 after the first round to be eligible for the final competition.

Switzerland's Steve Guerdat and France's Patrice Delaveau currently lead the rankings in joint first place after two days of competition.