Bertram Allen’s clear round leaves Ireland lying eighth in Aachen

Ireland is lying eighth on a converted score of 9.960 following Wednesday’s first speed competition at the European Show Jumping Championships in Aachen.

A clear round in 69.79 saw Bertram Allen place fifth on Molly Malone V and, although Greg Broderick finished out of the money in 25th, he too went clear on MHS Going Global (74.13). Four faults in 79.01 resulted in Cian O'Connor being some way off the other pair in 52nd position while, first to go for the team, Denis Lynch picked up eight faults with All Star 5 to currently lie 62nd of the 94 individual starters.

Host nation Germany heads the team competition on 4.400 followed by France (5.700), Britain (6.990), Spain (7.580), The Netherlands (7.820), Ukraine (8.030) and Italy (9.230).

On the individual leaderboard, Allen (1.06) is headed by France's Penelope Leprevost on a score of zero, Ludger Beerbaum of Germany (0.75), Britain's Joe Clee (1.00) and Belgium's Gregory Wathelet (1.04).

With two rounds of the team competition remaining, Ireland is in fourth place of those nations who have yet to qualify for next year's Olympic Games.