The Minister for Sport, Dr Jim McDaid, officially launched the 1999 Punchestown three-day event at the Co Kildare racecourse yesterday and announced the second year of sponsorship by Dublin financial services company IFG.

This year's fixture, which runs at the National Centre for Equestrian and Field Sports at Punchestown from May 13th-16th, is expected to attract a high-quality field as it has been earmarked as a qualifier for the Sydney 2000 Olympics by a number of nations. The Americans have also named Punchestown as a trial for its squad for the Pan-Am Games, which will be staged in Winnipeg in late July.

Riders from Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and New Zealand have also expressed an interest in competing at the event, which traditionally forms the highlight of the Irish eventing calendar.

Britain's Mike Etherington-Smith, who has already started work on designing the cross-country course for next year's Olympic Games in Sydney, has been brought in as technical delegate to assist Irish designer Kitty Keys for the feature three-star competition, with Denis Currie acting as TD for the two-star, which also incorporates special young rider and junior sections.

The young riders are being given their own international class as a build-up to the world individual and European team young rider championships, which are being held at the Ulster Lakeland Equestrian Park at Necarne Castle in Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh, in September. As host nation, Ireland will be expected to field a squad of 12 young riders and the Punchestown competition will be used as part of the selection process.

The overall prizefund for the four classes at Punchestown has been boosted to £25,000, with £4,000 of that going to the winner of the IFG three-star.

Three magnificent all-weather arenas will be used for both the dressage and show jumping phases, with the popular cross-country set for Saturday, May 15th. The main arena, which measures 80m x 110m, is the largest all-weather arena in the country.

The final show jumping test on the Sunday coincides with the National Country Fair, which once again includes the Gain hunt chase.