Eventers banking on cross-country

IRELAND’S eventers will be hoping a good performance in today’s cross-country will push them up the leaderboard at the European Championships in Luhmühlen, Germany, having finished a poor eighth of 10 countries after the dressage phase.

Sam Watson and Horseware Bushman just failed to break the 50-penalty barrier yesterday by 0.20pens, but championships debutant Joseph Murphy and Electric Cruise scored a disappointing 57.70pens. It meant for a team total of 158.9pens, when added to Thursday’s 51pens from Jayne Doherty (The Only One), with Mark Kyle’s (Coolio) 60.4pens the discard.

Ireland’s performance saw them 60 penalties more than leaders Germany, who are bidding for a first European team gold since 1973 and became the first country to ever score sub-100 in dressage.