EQUESTRIAN: Dermott Lennon made his debut at London's big pre-Christmas show jumping championships at Olympia a winning one yesterday, scooping a shared victory in the Pony Club mini-major relay with young James Smith after clocking the same time as Andrew Davies and Zoe Adams.
It was Lennon's first appearance on English soil since winning individual gold at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez back in September.
But the champion has made few changes to his lifestyle since claiming a title that escaped even Eddie Macken.
Lennon still shares the driving to shows and was behind the wheel on the first leg of the 10-hour trip from his base in Holland on Wednesday.
Liscalgot, the mare that provided the horsepower to get Lennon into the four-way decider for the medals in Jerez, was one of the occupants in the lorry and will be making her first appearance on the World Cup circuit this term when she jumps in tomorrow's feature class.
The daughter of Touchdown was syndicated in March when Northern Ireland businessmen James Acheson, Sam Thompson and Woods Rosbotham bought the mare from breeders Terence and Mary Harvey to guarantee Lennon would keep the ride.
Lennon gave his new owners an almost instant return, winning both the World Cup qualifier and the pre-qualifying class at Dortmund.
But that was a mere hors d'oeuvre to the main meal which came in Spain when Lennon occupied the top step on the medal podium at the world games to claim Ireland's first world title.
Since that historic victory, Lennon has been on a whirlwind tour of award ceremonies, including last month's Show Jumpers Ball in Naas, Co Kildare, where the guest of honour had made an ignominious exit from the Stuttgart Grand Prix by forgetting the course in the first round.
Although he corrected his error, five time faults kept him out of the jump-off, "which was probably a good thing for the show jumpers because if I'd jumped clear I would have missed the plane", he said.
Lennon, one of the 12 nominees for the RTÉ/Hibernian sports personality of the year, also took the mare to the Spanish fixture at La Coruna a fortnight ago - "but I haven't done much jumping with her" - so he will be aiming to have her tuned in time for tomorrow's World Cup qualifier.
Peter Charles, the other Irish flag flyer at Olympia, took the honours in the World Cup class here a year ago with Mulligan, which finished ninth in yesterday's second class.
But Charles has been sidelined with an elbow injury and hasn't jumped since his outing to the World Cup show in Berlin in the middle of last month when his Hickstead Derby winner Corrada hit the second last fence.
The Hampshire-based rider was due to compete at the Swiss World Cup show in Geneva last weekend, but pulled out due to continuing problems with a ruptured bursa in his right elbow.
The injury stems back to a fall before the World Games, but a second fall from a young horse last month exacerbated the problem and there was talk of surgery after Christmas.
Coupled with daily physiotherapy, Charles is now wearing a special brace on the arm, which prevents him from either over-extending or bending the elbow.
The made-to-measure brace was only completed this week, which meant missing Geneva, so Charles is short of match practice as he bids for back-to-back wins in the Olympia World Cup.
"I'm mainly here for the World Cup, but I won't be going mad," he says, before going on in the next breath to add that he is riding a giant "19-hand hunter" in tonight's Puissance.
"If you're going to jump a big fence, you need a big horse," he says, "and I couldn't resist it."
RESULTS
Pony Club mini-major relay - Equal 1, Ireland's Dow Jones Courcel (Dermott Lennon) and Britain's Will O' The Wisp (James Smith), and Britain's Gamble (Andrew Davies) and Magic Monkey (Zoe Adams), 63.30 seconds; 3, Britain's Fresh Direct Marleen (Tim Stockdale) and Bowes Sleeping Beauty (Katy Ford), 68.61.
Welcome Speed Stakes - 1, Britain's Landfurst FC (Michael Whitaker), 47.64 seconds; 2, Britain's Carmen (John Whitaker), 49.48; 3, Germany's Fighting Alpha (Lars Nieberg), 50.52.
Speed and Handiness - 1, France's Olympa (Michel Robert), 46.94 penalties; 2, Germany's Graziana (Toni Hassmann), 47.19; 3, Sweden's H and M Tamina (Malin Baryard), 47.48; 9, Ireland's Mulligan (Peter Charles), 49.90.
