O'Connor jumps to gold

It looked as though Team Ireland would draw a complete blank at Athens 2004, but Cian O'Connor came out and took individual gold in the show jumping final last night, writes Grania Willis in Athens

Ireland's first Olympic medal of the 28th Olympiad and, not only the first ever Olympic equestrian medal, but the best colour of all.

"It's unbelievable," a delirious O'Connor said as his closest rivals jumped off for the silver. "The horse was class, but it was a real team effort from the whole Irish camp."

Lying equal fourth after the first round, the 24-year-old was first to go of six on four faults. But he rode into the tension-filled arena and coolly asked one of the fence stewards to check the back rail on the first part of the double of water ditches before he started. As he cantered round towards the first, the British announcer stated that O'Connor was 23. By the time he'd jumped a magnificent clear, the announcer was claiming O'Connor was 25, but his supporters had aged far more than two years in the intervening 67 seconds.

Former world champion Rodrigo Pessoa had already gone clear, but his eight faults from the first round meant he couldn't overtake O'Connor. But there were plenty more waiting in the wings to try to do exactly that, including Ireland's Jessica Kurten, whose first round clear had left her level pegging at the head of the field with British hope Nick Skelton.

But one by one the opposition fell by the wayside, victims to Olaf Petersen's massive track. American Chris Kappler came off best, adding just four to tie on an eight-fault total with Pessoa, but O'Connor was still just out of the medal zone.

New Zealand's Daniel Meech, whose first round clear had just gone over the time by .22 of a second for a single time fault, was third last to jump but his medal hopes crashed and burned as Diagonal lowered three fences. Meech's misfortune was O'Connor's good fortune, however, as he moved up into the bronze, but there was still more drama to be played out and, most devastating of all, it was Kurten that the gods decided would be their next plaything.

Her superb first round clear had given Irish supporters their first sniff of a medal at these Olympics and, if luck held, it would be gold. But it wasn't to be Kurten's turn. Castle Forbes Maike, the mare bought by Lady Georgina Forbes before Christmas with the Olympics as her goal, flattened all three parts of the combination to boost O'Connor up into silver.

Two more rails hit the dirt before Kurten and Maike crossed the finish line and a distraught Kurten plummeted way out of the medals. "It's a long way from finished," the Co Antrim born rider had said after her first-round clear, "and we could still end up in 20th." Ironically, 20th was exactly where she wound up at the close of play.

So only Skelton could deny O'Connor the greatest moment in Irish equestrianism since Dermott Lennon won individual gold at the world equestrian games in 2002. Riding in his fourth Olympics, Skelton had returned from a life-threatening injury to fight for his place on the Athens start list.

Skelton broke his neck in September 2000 and watched the opening ceremony of the Sydney Games from his hospital bed. Originally told that another fall would probably be fatal, Skelton was given the all-clear to ride again in January 2002 and set his sights on gold in Athens. But the fates didn't favour the Briton either. When the big triple bar went down, O'Connor was going to have to jump-off for gold, but two more rails fell and the gold had gone to O'Connor and Ireland.

The Meath-based rider, whose grandfather Karl Mullen was on the Ireland Grand Slam winning rugby team of 1948, didn't even know he'd won, however.

"I thought I might win a bronze," he said, "so I stayed and watched all the four-faulters, then I went back up to get on the horse in case the other two had a fence down and I had to jump-off. I heard a steward shouting that there would be a jump-off for the silver and that's the first time I knew that I'd won."

O'Connor's championship record had been mixed until yesterday, even though he has had great success on the Nations Cup circuit. A fall in the world games in Jerez two years ago robbed him of a chance at the medals, but he was part of the squad at last year's Europeans in Germany, where the Irish failed in the defence of their crown but a fifth-place finish guaranteed Ireland a team place in Athens.

But even his Olympic campaign didn't go according to plan at first. Clear the first day with a single time fault, Waterford Crystal then racked up an uncharacteristic 12 and eight in the Nations Cup. O'Connor was at a loss to explain the horse's dramatic loss of form. "He had five down in the Nations Cup and he hasn't had five down all year," O'Connor said yesterday.

The horse was examined by team vet Marcus Swail and found to be suffering from muscle soreness on the left side of his neck, but chiropractic treatment and massage sorted out the problem. "It was like chalk and cheese today, he was a completely different horse," O'Connor said.

"It was a real team effort," he said last night, giving credit to team trainer Eddie Macken, his personal trainer Gerry Mullins and vet Marcus Swail for his work on the horse.

"I told him if he jumped a clear he'd win a medal," Macken said afterwards.

"It was worth all the fighting," he said, referring to the controversy surrounding his own appointment as team trainer, subsequent sacking and eventual reinstatement.

It was a truly golden performance and O'Connor wasn't the only Irish person with a lump in his throat as The Soldier's Song rang out across the arena while the Tricolour was raised on the flagpole for first time in the Athens Games and for the first time at an Olympic equestrian venue.

MIXED INDIVIDUAL FINAL RANKINGS: 1 C O'Connor (Irl) Waterford Crystal 4+4+0, 2 R Pessoa (Bra) Baloubet Du 8+8+0, 3 C Kappler (USA) Royal Kaliber 8+4+4, 4 M Kutscher (Ger) Montender 9+4+5, 5 R Smith (Bri) Mr Springfield 12+8+4, 6 D Demeersman (Bel) Clinton 12+8+4, 7 P Fredericson (Swe) Magic Bengtsson 12+8+4, 8 K Babington (Irl) Carling King 12+8+4, 9 RG Bengtsson (Swe) Mac Kinley 12+8+4, 10 L Philippaerts (Bel) Parco 12+4+8, 11 T Velin (Den) Carnute 13+4+9, 12 N Skelton (Bri) Arko Iii 13+0+13, 13 D Meech (Nzl) Diagonal 14+1+13, 14 C Liebherr (Swi) No Mercy 17+8+9, 15 BG Sohn (Kor) Cim Christo18+5+13, 16 T Sugitani (Jpn) Lamalushi 20+8+12, 17 JC Garcia (Ita) Albin Iii 20+8+12, 18 L Beerbaum (Ger) Goldfever 20+8+12, 19 O Becker (Ger) Cento 21+8+13, 20 J Kuerten (Irl) Castle Forbes 21+0+21. Other: 61 M Hughes (Irl) Fortunus