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Ireland’s show jumpers pull off surprise Hickstead win

With a couple of last-place finishes this season and lying bottom of the FEI Top League, Ireland’s show jumpers pulled off a surprise yesterday with victory in the nations cup in Hickstead, England.

It was a timely boost ahead of the Olympics and was particularly notable for Richie Moloney, who marked his league debut with a superb double clear, describing the result as “a dream come true — it can’t get much better really”.

The win saw Ireland move off the bottom of the league, on 29 points, just 0.5 ahead of Belgium, but with a similar margin separating manager Robert Splaine’s charges from the Netherlands in third-last place.

A tight leaderboard shows Switzerland and Sweden next best, sharing fourth place on 31.5 points and, with home advantage in Dublin next month, the situation is looking much healthier for Ireland.

“All the lads came here highly motivated — we needed a big result, and we got a big result. They will be looking for another one of those in four weeks’ time,” said Corkman Splaine, adding it balanced out the misfortune encountered earlier in the series.

Ireland finished bottom of the pile in Sweden last week, and Splaine said: “There are more downs than ups in this sport, and you have to be very strong to come back from that.

“I have to say that this result today proves that we’re as good as anyone in the world.

“Now is the time to get behind the two riders we’re sending to the London Olympics [Billy Twomey and Cian O’Connor].”

Moloney’s double clear with the 10-year-old Ahorn van de Zuuthoeve was key to the Irish triumph, being one of only two in the contest on the day.

His opening round was matched by Darragh Kerins on Lisona and Shane Breen on Cos I Can for a zero total, after Clem McMahon opted to retire the inexperienced Pacino with three fences on the ground.

It was far from over, however, as Germany and France also had clean sheets and, when Breen re-opened with an eight-fault tally, the pressure was on.

However, Moloney’s second clear, followed by four faults from Kerins helped regain the momentum, before McMahon secured victory with a clear that left Ireland on four faults, four better than the French, with Germany on 12. Home

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