Angry Kurten withdraws

A bitter row is threatening to undermine Ireland's chances of adding a world championship show jumping medal to the team gold netted at last year's European Championships.

Jessica Kurten, a member of Ireland's European gold medal team in Arnhem last summer, said yesterday that she is pulling out of both the World Equestrian Games and all Nations Cup shows this season following a controversial decision to leave her out of the Irish selection for next month's World Cup fixture in Paris.

Kurten lashed out at the international selection panel yesterday after hearing that Dermott Lennon and Cameron Hanley had been picked for the France trip at a meeting in Navan on Tuesday night.

"I have no confidence in the selectors," she said from her base in Germany yesterday, "and I'm pulling out of the team. Nothing ever changes, but at least over the last couple of years we were given reasons. It's just blatant this time to say that it's because a sponsor wants to go."

Kurten's reaction came after being told that Cameron Hanley, who hasn't jumped at any World Cup show this series, had been selected for Paris because his British backer Michael Bates wanted to attend.

However, speaking after the selection meeting, the chairman of the international affairs committee Peter Leonard said there was no "hidden agenda" in the selection process.

"Basically we had three riders for three shows but only space for two at each. Three into two doesn't go without some concessions."

Leonard also repudiated suggestions that Cameron Hanley's backer, Michael Bates had swayed their decision. "It's totally untrue," he said.

"We weren't influenced by anyone, no owners, no sponsors. We just listened to where the riders wanted to go. I'm sorry Jessica feels the way she does, but we're going to have to pick Nations Cups teams later in the year and the broader the pool we have to choose from the better."

Only the top 18 riders from the western European league will qualify for the World Cup final in Germany at the beginning of May and Kurten, who is currently 24th, still needs more points if she is to make it to Leipzig.

She has a personal invitation to the qualifier in Dortmund a week after Paris as her sponsors, Aegon, will be at the show, but she believes that riders with a chance of getting to the final should be given precedence over those who would need to clock up two outright wins to feature on the Leipzig startlist.

Lennon has just seven points to his credit, while Hanley has yet to make an impression on the points table.

Kurten missed the cut by a 100th of a second in Bordeaux last weekend when Paavo's single mistake going into the combination left her 19th in the Friday-night eliminator that decides the 18 for the qualifier itself.

The pair then went on to produce a double clear for a sixth-place finish in Sunday's Grand Prix.

"I said over the last few weeks that if Paavo keeps jumping the way he is then I would go to the Games, with one or two Nations Cup shows on the way.

"But if the selectors are going to behave like this then it's over," she declared.