Show Jumping - Ireland Bids For World Medals And Olympic Qualification Today

Ireland yesterday out-gunned some of the world's best show jumping nations to claim a top ten place in the final round of the team competition at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy this afternoon (Thursday).

With world medals up for grabs, Irish team manager Robert Splaine will also have his sights sets on the automatic Olympic qualification guaranteed to the top five teams at the end of today.

Splaine said: "This has been a tremendous effort by Ireland. The first target was to make the top ten and we have achieved that. Some very strong teams such as the current Olympic gold medal holders Great Britain along with Switzerland and Belgium are on their way home. We have some ground to make up and we need the results to go our way but we will certainly be giving it our all today."

Ireland's team of Darragh Kenny and Imothep, Bertram Allen with Molly Malone, Denis Lynch on All Star 5 and Cameron Hanley with Antello Z are in eighth place overnight, with the Netherlands in the lead, closely followed by the USA and Germany.

Individually Bertram Allen is best of the Irish, now in 14th place, and he looks certain to qualify for the Individual Finals that start on Saturday. Darragh Kenny and Denis Lynch are also in the top 50 at the moment, and both stand a chance of being amongst the top 30 who qualify for Saturday's Individual Final.

The individual World Champion will be decided on Sunday.