No Olympic guarantees for Bertram Allen

The criteria for the selection of the show jumper to represent Ireland at the Olympics has been published and contains no reference to special consideration for the rider who won the place for Ireland, in this case Bertram Allen.

Allen secured the ticket to Rio for Ireland by topping the North Western Europe group and, in this column last week, he said “definitely” this would help his chances of being selected by manager Robert Splaine for the Olympics.

While his opinion is not supported in HSI selection policy, he was adamant this week his success in winning the place would remain a determinant as to who will travel to Rio.

“It’s not a big surprise. It is not written in the selection paper, but in the back of their [Robert Splaine and HSI] mind, it would have to be a factor,” said the 20-year-old ahead of claiming a win on Romanov at the Saut Hermès show in Paris yesterday.

The selection policy lists seven factors that will “be taken into consideration”:

1. Present form of the horse and athlete up to the date of selection;

2. Past performance(s) of the horse and athlete;

3. The performance of the combinations in this year’s five-star nations cups competitions;

4. The performance of the combinations in five-star grands prix this year and last year;

5. The performance of the combinations at last year’s European Championships and FEI top-level, five-star nations cups;

6. The soundness of the horse to meet the challenges of competing at the Olympics, and;

7. Commitment to the HSI high-performance programme.

It is instructive to note that the first two words in the criteria are “present form”.

Any rider/horse combination that stands out in the months from April to June is likely to be top of the selection list for Splaine. Accordingly, you can expect the nations cup contests to filter out any riders with false pretentions. Performances from 2015 will then come into play, particularly if a number of rider/horse combinations are considered on a par, while the physical and mental ability of both horse and rider to handle the stresses of being an Olympian is also likely to figure.

In essence, any deviation from the above would also amount to a deviation from the stated aim of the policy, which is to select the athlete and horse combination “that will deliver the best possible result” at the Olympics.

Considering Ireland’s history of controversy vis-a-vis the Olympics, it comes as no surprise to see riders put on their guard, with the policy pointing out that the high-performance manager (Robert Splaine) and/or Horse Sport Ireland can request that:

* A horse be made available for inspection by the team veterinarian at any time.

* The high-performance manager and/or Horse Sport Ireland can send the team veterinarian and/or an appointed veterinarian to take a blood and/or urine sample from a horse at any time.

* Riders (at their own expense) shall make available, upon the request of the team veterinarian, the veterinary records of horses being considered for selection.

* Each athlete will be required to keep a log book for their horses in which they must record all products and treatments used on or given to their horse from June 1 until the first vet inspection at the Games on 12th August, 2016. The team veterinarian will be entitled to view this log book at any time.

In case of any ambiguity, the HSI selection policy says the manager can remove a rider from selection, if the rider “does not comply with any of the above veterinary requests, the selected horse produces an adverse analytical finding following on from an assessment and/or the horse is deemed unsound to travel and compete” at the Olympics”.