Splaine asked to pick replacement for Lynch

LESS THAN a week after they had nominated Billy Twomey and Denis Lynch to the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) to represent the country in show jumping at the Olympics in London, Horse Sport Ireland yesterday decided not to proceed with Lynch’s nomination.

The governing body of equestrian sport in Ireland have now requested their show jumping team manager Robert Splaine, who had selected the pair, to put forward a replacement for the Tipperary native from his list of reserves. The identity of the second Irish rider for the show jumping competition, which gets under way in Greenwich Park on Saturday, August 4th, should be made known this morning.

Lynch was nominated for the Olympics last week with the gelding Abbervail van het Dingeshof, who he partnered to finish 13th in the Grand Prix at Aachen on Sunday. However, following the disqualification on Friday of Lantinus, his Nations’ Cup mount at the German venue, HSI asked the OCI to pause the ratification of Lynch for the Games.

Although the Germany-based rider was free to compete throughout the weekend, Lantinus was disqualified from continuing at the five-star show having failed a hypersensitivity test during a “routine boot and bandage control”.

This was the third time in the past 12 months a mount of Lynch’s had failed such a test, All Inclusive NRW doing so at the Global Champions’ Tour in Rio de Janerio in September, while Lord Luis went down at Aachen last year.

Later on Friday, a spokesperson for HSI said: “We are awaiting a full report on this matter from the FEI and our own personnel in Aachen.

“In the interim, we have asked the OCI to pause the process of ratifying Denis Lynch’s selection for the Games.”

Lynch, who was one of four riders withdrawn from the final stages of the individual competition in Hong Kong during the 2008 Beijing Games when their horses tested positive for the banned substance, capsaicin, issued a statement over the weekend in which he said “At no stage, was there any inference that the hypersensitivity was anything other than natural occurring. I feel this is very important to clarify and I would also like to state for the record that I fully support all measures regarding hypersensitivity implemented by the FEI.”

However, having met yesterday morning, HSI decided not to proceed with Lynch’s nomination and it now remains to be seen who Splaine will pick to line-up beside Twomey, who rides Tinka’s Serenade, in London.

Cian O’Connor, who was stripped of his 2004 Olympic gold medal when two human drugs were found in a urine sample taken from his horse Waterford Crystal, was on the Nations’ Cup team in Aachen with Blue Loyd, who had a pole down in round one but jumped clear in the second round.

The former world champion Dermott Lennon also competed on Thursday with Loughview Lou Lou, who picked up four faults first time out and then had the discard score in round two. US-based Shane Sweetnam must also come into consideration with Amaretto d’Arco.