Showjumpers urged to help team stay in top flight
Two of Ireland’s top international showjumpers were today urged to put problems aside to line out for the Irish Team in next Friday’s German nations cup.
Avril Doyle, President of the Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI), called on showjumpers Harry Marshall and Jessica Kuerten to temporarily put aside the ongoing row to join the team for the major Samsung Super League competition in Aachen.
“Jessica Kuerten, Harry Marshall, two of our top riders with superb horses underneath them, we need them all and we need them for Aachen. We have one focus now in terms of the federation,” she said.
“What we want is that we survive in the Samsung Super League, it is in Harry’s and Jessica’s and all their interests and indeed all the other showjumpers and horse producers in Ireland that we stay in the top eight in the world.”
Both Marshall and Kuerten have vowed not to ride on a team with showjumper Cian O’Connor after he was stripped of last year’s Olympic gold medal and over issues on the selection process over Dublin’s Nations Cup competition.
Marshall has described the atmosphere within the showjumping squad as appalling since O'Connor returned to the team, having served a three-month ban for inadvertently giving his horse a banned substance.
The showjumper has said he will not line out for Ireland in Aachen despite O’Connor’s withdrawal from the team due to his horse’s injuries.
O’Connor’s decision to withdraw is a blow to Ireland’s efforts to avoid relegation from the Samsung Super League.
The Irish team are in second-to-last place in the Samsung Super League after finishing fifth in the Aga Khan trophy in Dublin, and face relegation from showjumping’s top division.
However, Marshall claimed he would still not ride as action was not taken over difficulties in the selection process that arose during the Nations Cup event in Dublin.
“I don’t want Ireland to drop out of the Super League and I believe that the team is good enough to stay in the Super League if they pull together but I think there is hidden agendas and personalities really getting in the way,” he said.
Marshall said that asking him to go to Aachen in the current situation with the selection committee was an insult.
“The guys that make these decisions and have this sport in this situation are still there doing the same job. That wouldn’t happen in any other company,” he said.
Doyle admitted there were still major problems hanging over the Irish showjumping team from the Nations Cup in Dublin and the fall-out over the Athens Olympics.
The EFI president said she would be asking for an in-depth review of the sport’s selection process to be undertaken as soon as possible after the Super League final in Barcelona on September 18.
“We have a very dysfunctional situation with the whole selection process in terms of the showjumping association of Ireland and other issues as well in terms of permanency of a Chef d’Equipe and a Chef that the riders agree with,” the federation president said.
“But all I can say is now, we have put in place a system where we will discuss all of those issues as soon as the next two Samsung superleagues are over – Aachen and then the final in Barcelona.
She said: “To our top riders, there will be another time very shortly where we can resolve these fully understandable problems, and I can understand how they feel, but I would love them to make themselves available for Aachen and hopefully Barcelona after that.”
