HSI agree to independent review of Olympics failure

HORSE Sport Ireland (HSI) has yielded to pressure and opted to initiate an independent review of Ireland’s failure to qualify a show jumping team for the Olympics.

In a statement issued last night, HSI confirmed the review of the Senior Show Jumping High Performance Programme “will be tasked with identifying the key factors that contributed to the Irish team’s non-qualification for the Olympic Games and will make recommendations for changes in the programme for the future”.

It said it would tender shortly for a company to undertake the review and it expected to have the report for the first HSI board meeting in January.

HSI said the decision to examine the performance was made at last week’s board meeting and came following discussions with the Irish Sports Council on the poor performance at last month’s European Championships in which the team placed ninth.

As part of their brief, the reviewer will speak individually with riders and team management as well as HSI and Irish Sports Council personnel.

“All such meetings will be one-to-one and no views will be attributed to any individual in the review,” HSI stated.

An advertisement will also be placed inviting interested parties to make submissions.

HSI chairman Joe Walsh said it was important that everybody involved was free to offer their views without fear or favour and he hoped that some positive proposals would come from the review.

“Everyone was very disappointed we didn’t qualify for the games. The review will provide those closest to the programme with an opportunity to offer their views and having someone independent will facilitate this. The key issue is to identify changes that can be made for the future,” said the Corkman .

The failure to qualify a team could have ramifications in terms of state support for equestrian sport, with HSI chief executive Damian McDonald conceding recently that “we have not delivered as we would have liked at senior level. We're in a results-based business and not qualifying a full team will obviously not help our case for funding”.

While Ireland will not have a team at the Games, it can secure two individual slots. Denis Lynch currently heads the Olympic rankings, which are determined through results from January of this year until next March. Billy Twomey is also well placed.

While the riders win the spots, it is up to chef d’equipe Robert Splaine to decide who will compete in London.