WATCH: Steward costs Ireland Rio Olympics spot
The interference caused O’Connor to knock a fence at the championships in Aachen, Germany, ultimately denying Ireland a place in next year’s Olympics.
The London Olympics bronze medallist was cruising to a clear round with Good Luck, but, as he turned to the last line of fences, a steward ran in front of him, then leapt into a flowerbed in a bid to get out of the way.
It was farcical and O’Connor was obviously distracted, with the result he knocked the next fence.
He was furious as he left the arena, pointing in the direction of the steward’s blunder.
It saw Ireland finish on 25.96 penalties after three days of competition, just 0.38 penalties behind Spain, who earned the last of three Olympic places on offer.
A HSI spokesman said: “The initial appeal at Aachen has been rejected, but we will be exhausting every possible avenue of appeal in this matter, as we owe it to our riders and their horse owners.”
This could include a visit to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the spokesman could not confirm this.
O’Connor declined to comment last night.
Prior to his round, Bertram Allen (Molly Malone V) and Greg Broderick (MHS Going Global) had each four-faulted to see Ireland battle back, while anchorman Denis Lynch (All Star 5) produced a classic clear, to leave the quartet in seventh place overall.
Ireland also narrowly missed out in qualifying for the Olympics at last year’s World Equestrian Games.
The Netherlands celebrated with gold yesterday, with Germany taking silver ahead of bronze medallists Switzerland.
