HICKSTEAD, England, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Ireland won out in a two-way jump-off against old rivals Britain in the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup at Hickstead, South England, on Sunday.
Wild winds, and the first heavy rain to hit the region for more than 50 days, ensured conditions were seriously challenging in this penultimate qualifier of the Europe Division 1 series. Rodrigo Pessoa's side of Trevor Breen, Richie Moloney, Michael Duffy and Anthony Condon battled through, and Condon clinched it in a third-round showdown against Holly Smith following a tie on 16 penalties after two rounds.
Britain were reduced to just three counting scores when former world No 1 and 2012 Olympic gold medallist Scott Brash was eliminated at the open water both times out with Hello Shelby.
But team manager Di Lampard has tremendous talent at her disposal with Smith (Heart's Destiny), Amanda Derbyshire (Luibanta BH) and William Whitaker (Utamaro D'Ecaussines) showing true grit to force the jump-off against Ireland.
Smith set the target with a lovely clear round from her nine-year-old bay who broke the beam in 43.39 seconds. Condon, who has been based in England for the last 14 years, finised in 41.29 seconds with his 12-year-old stallion SFS Aristio.
Ireland has now climbed to third on the Europe Division 1 leaderboard and, with 335 points, the reigning European champions look well-qualified for the Longines 2018 Final in Barcelona in October. Defending champions Brazil finished third, Sweden fourth and the Belgians had to settle for fifth ahead of Italy who lined up sixth of the seven competing nations.
With the Europe Division 1 series concluding in Dublin in 12 days time, Britain and Italy will be desperate to move out of the danger-zone at the bottom of the league table, as only seven of the 10 competing nations will make the cut to the Barcelona Final.
