Evans steers Irish event team to stunning win
Lying eighth of nine teams after the dressage phase, Evans, Jayne Harrison (The Irish One), Sue Shortt (Star Dance) and Louisa Clarke (Glencara) leapt to second after Saturday’s cross-country, with only Clarke picking up jumping penalties.
Ireland’s cause was further boosted prior to yesterday’s show jumping phase when leaders France were reduced to two riders, adding 1,000 penalties to their tally and plummeting to eighth.
At this stage, new leaders Ireland had one fence in hand over Sweden. But, when the Scandinavians fell foul of the show jumping course, Italy took up the challenge.
With Evans jumping clear again to finish 12th individually, the team finished on 260.60 to hold off the Italians on 266.80. Ireland were the only team to finish with a full complement.
Yesterday evening, Shortt made no effort to hide her surprise at the team’s victory, particularly in light of the disappointing start to what is one of the top events in Europe.
“It was fantastic to win, especially as all the horses are relatively green. Jonty’s is the only one to do a three-star before.”
She agreed it was unfortunate to be so far down the rankings after the dressage, but the team opted to make the best of the situation.
“We went out on the cross-country with the intention of trying to educate the horses. We could not believe it when, at the end, we saw we were lying second.
“It was a strong track, but we could not believe the decimation,” she said.
The Kildare rider had found the cross-country tougher than anticipated, after the breastplate broke on Star Dance, seriously hindering their progress, with the result she picked up almost 33 time faults.
“The breastplate broke at the fourth fence and was smacking her in the face. It slowed us up, but she was brilliant to jump clear.”
