PETER CHARLES, already honoured in the Texaco and Ballygowan/RTE sports awards, has won the Irish Field show jumper of the year trophy for 1995 in recognition of his individual gold medal at the European championships at St Gallen, Switzerland, last September.
Charles' gold was Ireland's first European show jumping title, but Lucy Thompson - winner of the European three day event championships in Italy a week later - was following in the footsteps of Major Eddie Boylan, who claimed "the laurels back in 1967 when the championships were staged at Punchestown. Not surprisingly, Thompson has been named as Irish Field senior event rider of 1995.
For the first time in the history of the Irish Field awards, all four trophies have gone to European champions. Co Down's Emma Wilson, who gave Ireland a second consecutive individual pony showjumping gold (won by Patrick Hanlon in 1994) in Achselschwang, Germany, takes the leading pony rider award.
And, in a change from the usual format, the trophy for the top young event rider is being shared among the four team gold medallists from the European championships (also in Achselschwang). The winning quartet were Karen Connolly (Co Meath), Sascha Harrison (Co Armagh), Stuart Crawford (Larne) and Austin O'Connor, formerly from Cork but now based in Cornwall.
The awards were presented at the RDS yesterday afternoon.
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