Marshall pulls out of nations cup squad
The Antrim man claimed he was angry with the selection process after he failed to make the nations cup team last week at the Failte Ireland Dublin Horse Show and he also vowed: “I will never ride on a team with Cian O’Connor again.”
Asked if he expected to be on the team for Aachen in Germany later this month, he said: “They [the selectors] want me to go, but I won’t go ... I would not jump under that regime,” he said, adding “they must all resign first, I am very bitter.”
Marshall yesterday said he was angry after being was informed last Thursday, the day before the nations cup, that he was on the team, but subsequently being was told he was not.
“They told me I was on the team and asked me what position I wanted to go ... then they told me they were going with the four horses that competed” in the run-up to the competition, he said.
His withdrawal was followed by the resignation of two of the selectors last night.
Tom Slattery the riders’ representative on the selection committee and Liam Buckley, the Show Jumping Association of Ireland’s Leinster representative, walked out midway through a lengthy meeting at the RDS.
Mr Slattery said he felt “disgusted” by the whole matter and “betrayed” by the committee.
“I have severed my links with the international affairs committee, but if there is anything I can do to help the Irish team I will,” he said.
The Galway man said he walked out during a discussion on the report on the Dublin show presented by chef d’equipe Eamonn Rice.
Earlier, Slattery confirmed he was with Marshall when he was told he was on the team.
He said last night it was “unfair that Harry was picked and dropped from team”.
Mr Rice would not comment after last night’s meeting. But prior to the meeting he categorically rejected a claim by Marshall that he was dropped from the team after Cian O’Connor threatened to withdraw if Capt Shane Carey was not selected.
The team of Carey, O’Connor, Billy Twomey and Clem McMahon finished fifth in Friday’s nations cup for the Aga Khan trophy. The result moved Ireland from
the bottom of the Samsung Super League.
However, they are just 2.5 points above the Netherlands and, with just Aachen and the final in Barcelona remaining, they are facing relegation if they return to last place.
Selectors chairman Taylor Vard confirmed after last night’s meeting that Marshall and Jessica Kurten had not gone forward for selection for Aachen at the end of the month.
The team is Billy Twomey, Cian O’Connor, Capt Shane Carey, Shane Breen and Marie Burke. The chef d’equipe is John Ledingham.
Cian O’Connor decline to comment publicly yesterday afternoon.
Belgian Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe won the Samsung International Grand Prix yesterday to cement his claim to the leading international rider title at the Failte Ireland Dublin Horse Show.
Marshall proved the best of the Irish, finishing seventh.
