Kuerten inspires Irish medal hopes

Jessica Kuerten sits joint-first ahead of this evening's individual show jumping final at Athens' Markopoulo centre after a stunning clear round on ten-year-old mare Castle Forbes Maike.

The 34-year-old Antrim-born rider rode one of two clear rounds - the second from Great Britain veteran Nick Skelton - in this afternoon's first round, spearheading the Irish challenge with Cian O'Connor also sitting pretty in joint-4th, after 4 faults, and Kevin Babington joint-12th, with two fences down on Olaf Petersen's course.

A nervy afternoon for the international elite saw American Beezie Madden, who had ridden three clears already this week, struggle to joint-12th and team champions Germany all draw faults with Marco Kutscher their best-ranked in joint-4th.

Twenty of the 46 competitors are through to tonight's deciding second round, which starts at 6.30pm Irish time, and German-based Kuerten will jump last.

Afterwards, 24-year-old O'Connor said of his round: "Waterford Crystal knocked down eight fences in the team competition, and I realised then that something was wrong with him.

"The vet spotted something on his neck - maybe he hurt himself somewhere. But today he was very relaxed and at ease. I had a good feeling and the round turned out fine.

"All I want to do is the second round is to make a clear and we'll see what happens."

The riders carry their scores from this afternoon into the floodlit finale.

Results:

Show Jumping, Individual final, Round A: (20 riders to progress to tonight's Round B) -

(=1) Jessica Kuerten, 'Castle Forbes Maike' (Irl) 0 penalties, (=) Nick Skelton, 'Arko III' (Gbr) 0, (3) Daniel Meech, 'Diagonal' (Nzl) 1, (=4) Cian O'Connor, 'Waterford Crystal' (Irl) 4, (=4) Ludo Philippaerts, 'Parco' (Bel) 4, (=4) Wim Schroder, 'Montreal' (Can) 4, (=4) Thomas Velin, 'Carnute' (Denmark) 4, (=4) Chris Kappler, 'Royal Kaliber' (USA) 4, (=4) Marco Kutscher, 'Montender' (Ger) 4

Other Irish scores:

(=12) Kevin Babington, 'Carling King' (Irl) 8