Trevor Coyle has won The Irish Field trophy as leading show jumper for the second consecutive year, following a 1998 campaign which culminated in a brace of World Cup victories that put him on top of the western European league.

Coyle, from Portadown, Co Armagh, had triumphed in the 1997 Millstreet World Cup round and, 12 months later, returned to the winner's enclosure with the brilliant stallion Cruising. The pair then went on to score at Geneva with a performance that their team-mates described as truly sensational.

The Hartwell Stud sire had opened his 1998 campaign with victory in the Lucerne Grand Prix and went on to finish eighth individually in the World Equestrian Games in Rome, where Coyle narrowly missed the cut for the four-way change-horse final that decided the medals.

Carl Hanley from Claremorris, Co Mayo takes the award as leading pony rider for the second consecutive year. Hanley, who now graduates to the senior ranks and is currently training in Switzerland with top international rider Thomas Fuchs, marked his final year in ponies with nine national Grand Prix victories to take the Nature's Way league. He was a member of Ireland's winning team in the Southview Nations Cup and rounded off his pony career by winning the Wierden Grand Prix in Belgium immediately after Christmas.

Virginia McGrath and Heike Holstein, who both made their World Games debuts in Rome last autumn, were also presented with Irish Field awards at a special lunch in Kingswood Country House, Clondalkin yesterday. McGrath, who ran world and Olympic champion Blyth Tait a close second at the Scarva CIC, took the leading event rider trophy after finishing 19th individually at the Games, while Holstein was presented with the leading dressage rider award.

The trophy for the leading young event rider went to West Cork rider Valeska Kroeger, whose successes in 1998 included three wins on the national circuit before her spectacular victory in the junior championship at the Loughanmore three-day event.