Irish team in fifth going into Saturday’s cross-country phase in Aachen

The Irish team of Aoife Clark, Sarah Ennis and Elizabeth Power is lying in fifth place going into Saturday’s cross-country phase of the FEI Eventing Nations’ Cup in Aachen, Germany.

The trio was lying eighth of the nine competing nations after Friday morning’s dressage phase but moved up three places following clear rounds in the afternoon’s show jumping phase which saw Ireland complete on a score of 157.10 penalties.

Australia currently leads the team competition on 139.80 followed by New Zealand on 142.20 and then Great Britain on 142.50.

Competing in the five-star show jumping section at the same venue, Co Meath’s Cian O’Connor doubled up on his Thursday victory when landing Friday’s Derby with Chansonette Farm’s Be Gentle.

Co Offaly native Darragh Kenny won the 1.50m speed class at Knokke in Belgium on Friday when guiding Karen Polle’s 10-year-old gelding Global Van T Braunerthof to the fastest clear round in 62.23 seconds. The combination finished over a second ahead of Mexican runner-up Santigo Lambre on Fortin (63.43) with Cork’s Billy Twomey taking sixth place on Tin Tin (64.89).

Both Kenny and O’Connor have been named in the Ireland squad for next Friday’s Aga Khan Nations’ Cup competition at the Dublin Horse Show where they will be joined by Bertram Allen, Denis Lynch and Rio Olympics-bound Greg Broderick.

At home this weekend, the main show jumping interest lies in the Horseware/TRM national Grand Prix league at Connell Hill in Co Antrim on Saturday while a huge entry of 383 combinations is due to start in Sunday’s one-day event at Ballinamona, Co Waterford.