Kürten opens in style with battling fifth place

SHOWJUMPING/European Championships:Jessica Kürten opened her European championship campaign in flying form at Mannheim yesterday, galloping to fifth place in the individual rankings and leading Ireland to seventh in the team standings, just one place away from an Olympic qualifying slot going into today's first round of the Nations Cup.

Kürten, a team gold medallist at the 2001 Europeans, admitted to feeling under pressure after watching former world number one Markus Ehning eliminated with the mare Noltes Kuchengirl in the morning session, but the Co Antrim-born rider showed no sign of nerves as she steered the brilliant Castle Forbes Libertina to the fastest time of the day yesterday afternoon.

A fence down halfway round the 13-fence track added seconds on the clock, but Lady Georgina Forbes's mare has such a turn of foot that even a four-second penalty only dropped her to fifth in the final line-up, 1.6 faults adrift of Swiss leader Christina Liebherr. "Jessica's round was really special," team manager Robert Splaine said afterwards. "It was a very gutsy performance."

Splaine was also more than pleased with a fabulous clear from Cian O'Connor and the mare Echo Beach. O'Connor was originally named as fifth man and was only drafted into the Irish team on Tuesday at the expense of Marie Burke, but he made the most of his last-minute selection to slot into 13th yesterday.

"We needed those two rounds," Splaine said of the Kürten and O'Connor performances. "We're in a good position now. We've a common mission here and we need everybody performing to the best of their ability. We've got a good fighting team here and I think we've got a good chance. My main goal is Olympic qualification, but I would love to see a medal too."

Things didn't go quite according to plan for Irish pathfinder Cameron Hanley, who added eight on the clock with two fences down in his round with SIEC Hippica Kerman. A total time of 81.81 seconds left him in 50th, with Marion Hughes seven places lower after a tense round with Heritage Transmission that left the same two fences in the sand that Hippica Kerman had lowered.

Ireland are now less than two fences off the leading German team going into today's first round of the Nations Cup but within striking distance of a ticket to next year's Olympics. Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands have already booked their places in Hong Kong, meaning that Team Ireland have only to advance one slot in tomorrow evening's final team decider to make the cut for the 2008 Games.