Ireland opt to miss finals

Despite our status as reigning European champions in show jumping, Ireland will not field a team for the Samsung Nations Cup final in Madrid later this month.

The international affairs committee of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland decided it would be "unfair" to ask the European gold medal team of Dermott Lennon, Peter Charles, Jessica Kurten and Kevin Babington and their horses to travel to Spain so soon after returning from today's Samsung round at Calgary, Canada.

The show at Spruce Meadows in Calgary finishes on Sunday night, but the horses do not get back from Canada until Tuesday.

The riders felt that the horses would not have enough time to recover from a transatlantic flight before they were back on the road the following Sunday en route to Madrid for the Samsung finals.

Following a disappointing result in the Rotterdam Nations Cup last Sunday, when the team of Francis Connors, Denis Coakley, Captain Gerry Flynn and Robert Splaine finished well off the pace in sixth, the selectors have now decided not to send the B team to Madrid.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that Russia's top equestrian rider, Yelena Sidneva, has been prevented from taking her Olympic horse back to western Europe by border police after the owners demanded its return.

"It sounds like a joke, but unfortunately it's not," a tearful Sidneva said. "I came here (to Moscow) to compete (in a World Cup event), but now I could be thrown in jail."

Sidneva (36) has lived and trained in Austria for the past three years and rode the horse, Podkhod, at last year's Sydney Olympics.

She said her trainer had been transporting the 14-year-old to Austria when they were stopped at the Belarus-Poland border.

The horse's Moscow-based owners had told police it was being taken out of the country illegally.

Sidneva said that proving ownership would be difficult as no one knew where the papers were, adding that a horse like Podkhod was worth between $50,000 and $200,000, depending on its record.

"I spend up to $40,000 a year just on upkeep, while as Russia's top rider I get a $16 a month stipend from the Russian Equestrian Federation (REF)," she said.

"It's a competition horse, it needs special care, it can't stand still in its box for days without moving," she added.