Merveldt likely to represent Ireland in dressage at Olympics

Ireland is almost certain to have a dressage rider at the Olympics, with Anna Merveldt the likely contender.

Merveldt had secured second place on the reserve list, but this has proved sufficient as Colombia can, at most, take up just one of its three slots, which it earned as bronze medallist at the Pan American Games in Mexico, last October.

Merveldt, who rode the 16-year-old gelding Coryolano to seventh place in the grand prix special at the four-star Fritzens-Schndlhof, Austria, yesterday, competed in the Olympics at Barcelona, Spain, in 1992. In last August’s European Championships in Rotterdam she failed to be among the final 30 riders competing for honours.