EQUESTRIAN: Harry Marshall, who called for Olympic gold medallist Cian O'Connor to be suspended from membership of the national Show Jumpers Club on Saturday, was in the money at the Belfast International Horse Show yesterday when he steered catch ride Ado Annie into second place in a speed class.
The Co Antrim jockey got the ride on Paul Larkin's mare because her rider Edward Doyle had too many horses for the northern fixture.
The new partnership didn't gel instantly, coming agonisingly close to a top placing on Saturday when a rail off the last dropped them from second to ninth. They made amends yesterday, however, and were only denied victory by Britain's Robert Smith. Smith was notching up his third win of the week to put in his claim for the £25,000 Chrysler jeep that goes with the leading rider of the show award.
World champion Dermott Lennon found his way into the winner's enclosure in the earlier Triple X relay. With Swiss duo Markus Fuchs and Daniel Etter, Lennon's team made the most of the last-to-go draw and, despite a four-second penalty for a fence down, won by .25 of a second.
Also keeping the Irish flag flying was Billy Twomey, who was just shaded for victory in a frenetic finish to last night's knockout competition. The Cork-born rider went head-to-head with Ellen Whitaker but it was the 18-year-old Britain who came out ahead. Twomey was .13 adrift, but Tropicana trailed a pole off the last.
There was some gold for Ireland over the weekend, however, with Gerald Bloomer and Lee Murphy taking titles at the world university equestrian championships in Tokyo. UCD student Gerald Bloomer won gold in the dressage championships, with former Army Equitation School rider Lee Murphy from DIT taking gold in the show jumping and silver in the combined dressage and show jumping. Andrew Bourns from Waterford Institute of Technology took silver in the show jumping, to give the trio bronze in the teams.
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