“This means everything to me. This bronze medal is worth much more than the gold I won in Athens,” said Cian O’Connor last night after his stunning performance in London yesterday with Blue Loyd.

“I am up for it now more than ever.”

Twenty minutes after his dressage test in Saumur yesterday, Sam Watson was candid in his summing up: “It was awful.”

The FEI Nations Cup Series begins today in La Baule, France, and, important as it is, it will play second fiddle to the Olympics.

Cian O’Connor laid down an early marker in his bid to represent Ireland at the Olympics with a double clear in the US nations cup on Friday night.

Billy Twomey is confident that he and Denis Lynch have won two individual spots for Ireland in the Olympics, saying that, with almost three weeks to go to the March 1 cut-off date, they cannot be caught by Spain’s Sergio Alvarez Moya.

AS Ireland’s eventing riders go through an intensive training period in a final push to secure a team place in the Olympics, rider Michael Ryan noted how the vagaries of the sport impacted on him and his wife four years ago.

SHOWJUMPINGIRELAND (SJI) has decided that its regions can use their 2012 allocation of sports development funding for non-sporting activities, including administration.

IT took over two months, but Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) yesterday identified the Sia Group as the consultancy that will undertake a review of Ireland’s poor performance at the European Show Jumping Championships in Madrid.