Watson the best of Irish eventing team in Malmo

Sam Watson proved best of the Irish at the European Eventing Championships in Malmo, Sweden, placing 21st, as the team finished seventh of 10 countries.

The Carlow rider made up for a moderate dressage performance when jumping clear with Horseware Bushman in Saturday’s cross-country at a cost of just 0.4 time penalties. He followed this with four faults in yesterday’s show jumping for a completion score of 56.60pens.

The team effort was hit by the elimination of Joseph Murphy (Electric Cruise). Best of the Irish foursome after dressage, they had a run-out on the cross-country and during recovery Murphy took the wrong course to the next obstacle.