SHOW JUMPING/European Championships:Jessica Kürten, who pulled out of the final round at the European show jumping championships in Mannheim yesterday claiming she was too distressed to continue, is currently top of the Olympic rankings and could represent Ireland at next year's Games even though the Irish team failed to earn qualification at the European championships.
Kürten is the overall leader of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) rankings for riders whose countries have not qualified for next year's Olympics.
As well as the nations that have qualified teams for the 2008 games, 15 individuals will be eligible to compete in next year's Olympic show jumping, which will be staged in Hong Kong along with the other two equestrian disciplines, eventing and dressage.
However, Kürten's ranking guarantees only that one Irish individual will be eligible to compete in Hong Kong. It is not automatic the place will be filled by Kürten. The choice of who fills that slot will be made by the Olympic Council of Ireland, on the advice of the Equestrian Federation of Ireland.
The Mannheim championships were the final chance for Ireland to qualify a team for the 2008 Olympics, but Team Ireland were knocked out after the first round of the Nations Cup last Thursday.
And there was no joy in the individual standings either, Kürten pulling out of yesterday's final after hitting two fences in the first round with Castle Forbes Libertina to drop to 20th overall.
Switzerland's Christina Liebherr, who had led from the first day, dropped to fourth after hitting a fence in the first round, but then retired LB No Mercy after a stop in the second round. The disappearance of the Swiss rider left the top slot open and it was rapidly filled by Germany's Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, who held on to claim the individual title, €50,000 in prize money and a well-bred filly foal.
World champion Jos Lansink took silver with the stallion Cavalor Cumano ahead of Ludger Beerbaum, brother-in-law of the winner, on the 16-year-old Goldfever.
All the horses jumping at the championships were monitored by the official veterinary commission, who conducted thermographic imagery and physical examination of the horses' limbs after they had jumped. FEI vice-president Sven Holmberg stated afterwards no horse had been eliminated from the championships on welfare grounds.
(OB Sport's coverage of the European championships in Mannheim will be screened at 8.30pm on RTÉ 2 tonight.)
EUROPEAN SHOW JUMPING CHAMPIONSHIPS (Mannheim, Germany) Individual - 1, Germany's Shutterfly (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum), 1.54 faults; 2, Belgium's Al-Kaheel Cavalor Cumano (Jos Lansink), 3.42; 3, Germany's Goldfever (Ludger Beerbaum), 5.11; 20, Ireland's Castle Forbes Libertina (Jessica Kurten), 13.60.
