O'Connor gives Ireland boost after finishing eighth
Austin O'Connor of Ireland riding Hobby Du Mee Photo:Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
Wednesday August 13 2008
Ireland finished eighth on the final day of the Olympic Eventing competition at Sha Tin in Hong Kong yesterday where Germany stood firm to claim both team and individual gold.
And there was an upbeat finish to the Irish effort in yesterday's show jumping round when Austin O'Connor jumped clear with Hobby du Mee to go through to the top-25 final in which he kept a clean sheet yet again to finish 21st overall, and Capt Geoff Curran produced a fine effort from Kilkishen to pick up just two time faults.
Trailing the USA by more than 30 points going into the final phase, it was always going to be a tall order to improve the Irish position, and 13 faults from pathfinder Patricia Ryan (Fernhill Clover Mist) was followed by three fences down for Niall Griffin (Lorgaine).
But Curran's big gelding made the tricky 13-fence track look insignificant; O'Connor's French-bred produced a round of pure class, while Louise Lyons concluded the Irish effort with a nine-fault effort.
O'Connor's second round was sensational and the British-based Corkman said afterwards: "we didn't have a great start here as a team but we pulled off something special yesterday with five clear jumping rounds cross-country -- it's a long time since an Irish team has managed that and today was good again."
Australia claimed team silver, while Great Britain laid claim to the bronze.
Individual gold went to amateur rider Hinrich Romeike, whose day-job is dentistry and whose extraordinary grey Marius compensated for his rider's nerves to clinch victory over America's Gina Miles and the Irish-bred McKinlaigh in silver and Britain's Tina Cook and Miners Frolic in bronze.
Curran finished 32nd, Lyons 33rd, Griffin 38th and Ryan 43rd.
In a last-minute drama, America's Philip Dutton, who finished 16th, was disqual-ified for using weighted boots on his Irish-bred Rolex 4-Star winner Connaught.
SWIMMING: Two devastating defeats in two days have left former champion Laure Manaudou wondering whether she should quit the swimming competition midway through.
"I'm asking myself if it's worth continuing. I don't even have the desire to swim anymore," said Manaudou yesterday after placing seventh in the 100-meter backstroke.
On Monday, Manaudou finished eighth and last in the 400m freestyle final, more than eight seconds slower than the winner, Britain's Rebecca Adlington.
TENNIS: Top seeds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal continued their bids for Olympic gold with comfortable second-round victories in the men's singles.
Swiss top seed Federer had little difficulty in dispatching El Salvador's Rafael Arevalo 6-2 6-4, while Nadal brushed aside Lleyton Hewitt 6-1 6-2.
- Lucy O'Brien
