Up To Scratch Duke triumphs in impressive style

Sherelle Duke became Ireland's first individual young rider gold medallist when she took the European title by an impressive eight-point margin at the championships in Necarne Castle, Co Fermanagh, yesterday and, in the process, led the Irish to team bronze.

The 21-year-old, who works full-time with horses at her parents home outside Portadown, Co Armagh, triumphed with a superb cross country performance from the 12-year-old Up To Scratch, which she took over from older sister Sonya following the loss of her top horse, Royal Bouncer, which died of colic just over a year ago.

The entire championships had to be reprogrammed following torrential rain on Friday night which left most of the cross country course underwater. Safety has become even more paramount since the recent deaths of four riders in Britain, but there was no possibility of running across country after the river burst its banks, flooding up to three feet deep in places.

In a unique move, the cross country was postponed to Sunday and the show jumping brought forward to Saturday, which was eventually held in glorious sunshine in the all-weather walled arena.

A clear round from Duke boosted her up from fourth to second on Saturday night, leaving her five points adrift of dressage leader Ulrich Bormann. But the German had a fall on the steeplechase yesterday morning and, even though the fall went unpenalised as it was on the flat, not at a fence, the 14 time penalties and a further 13 from the cross country pushed Bormann out of the reckoning.

Bormann's disappearance took some of the pressure off Duke, but two of the German individual riders had already gone clear inside the time for a temporary hold on the top two slots. The Irish rider was given instructions to go for gold and, even though she was stopped on course while one of the Italian team was stretchered to a waiting ambulance, she kept her mind and her horse focused and went on to complete a foot-perfect round to clinch the title.

Anna Schulze-Zurmussen and Annekatrin Franzky followed Duke onto the medal podium, but the Germans showed their strength in depth by claiming team gold with five in the top 10.

The British, who had been relegated to fourth when last-out Tom Crisp was given 80 time faults, appealed and were promoted to take the silver at the expense of the home side, which had to settle for bronze.

Duke's gold and the team bronze continued the run of successes by Ireland's eventers, started by Elizabeth Power's double bronze in the European pony championships. The juniors were led to the team bronze by individual silver medallist Philippa Peters in France last weekend, while the seniors battle it out in Germany this week.

One of the Irish squad heading for Luhmuhlen today is Jane O'Flynn, who had the best possible tune-up for the championships by winning the two-star CCI, which was run concurrently with the young riders fixture. Teamed with her mother's latest purchase, Gormley, O'Flynn moved up from overnight fifth to claim the honours by the slimmest of margins from Britain's Cressida Clague-Reading, with Switzerland's Christian Landolt third on a slower cross country time. O'Flynn also finished seventh with Undercover Fox.

Elaine Ham, who had established her supremacy from the outset with One More Time, held on to win the junior class despite a mistake in Saturday's show jumping. Clear inside the time around yesterday's cross country, the Co Down rider won comfortably from British visitor Amelia Harris, whose American Gigolo was 10 penalties adrift at the close of play.