Hannigan takes bronze in Scotland
It was a family affair, as his older brother Peter placed fifth with First Mate, while fellow team members Melanie Young (Riverstown Express) and Alex Donohoe (Ardfry Baringa) finished in 18th and 36th place, respectively, with the aggregate team score good enough to put them ahead of Germany and behind gold medallists Britain.
David Hannigan’s bronze came after he added just 2.8 time penalties on Saturday’s cross-country with the Red Baron to move up to fourth place, but the withdrawal of overnight leader, Esteban Nedelec, from France elevated Hannigan to third going into yesterday’s show jumping phase. While the 18-year-old from Fethard had a fence in hand over his fourth-place rival, he finished in style with a clear for a total of 49.5 penalties.
Just 2.4pens separated him from the top position, but Germany’s Freya Fullgraebe and Oje Oje repeated their cross-country clear to take gold, while Britain’s Willa Newtown and Neelix also kept a clean sheet for a silver-winning score of 48.4pens.
In the individual rankings, Irish rider Alex Houston and the Irish-bred mare Missey Elliot improved by three places in the show jumping to finish in ninth overall, while Shane Power and another Irish-bred TLB Interactive went clear in the concluding phase to complete in 11th place.
Another Hannigan family member, 17-year-old Jane, was best of the Irish when seventh in the senior one-star competition with Ballygriffin Skyhigh.
At Camphire International Horse Trials in Co Waterford, Sarah Ennis won the feature class for the second year in a row.
Last year, she took the top two spots with BLM Diamond Delux and Sugar Brown Babe, and yesterday she returned with the latter to again win the two-star.
The Meath-based rider’s start-to-finish win saw her open up with 38.8pens in dressage Miriam and Jim Murphy’s mare, before she added 3.6pens in yesterday morning’s cross-country.
Last to go in the show jumping, she had no room for error, after Ciaran Glynn (Killossery Kruisita) produced a clear to keep the gap at just 2.5pens.
However, after surviving a scare when rattling poles entering and exiting the treble, Ennis went on to maintain her place at the top of the leaderboard at the close of proceedings.
“I looked back and saw the fence was still up and I just said to her ‘go on’,” said a beaming Ennis afterwards.
“Last year, she should have won, but knocked a fence and that was still in my mind today, but everyone needs a bit of luck.”
In show jumping, Peter Smyth, on board Hermione, claimed the TRM National Grand Prix League contest at Boswell Equestrian Centre yesterday, beating Cian O’Connor and his Millstreet Boomerang winner Everything.
