Ireland’s team of Jake O’Connor, Alan Keogan, Kate O’Connor, Craig O’Connor and Jeamie Reavy won silver at the Mounted Games World Championships in France last weekend. Along with the silver, the junior team of Peter McCarthy, Philip Weldon, Graham Bierne, Niall Hughes and Andrew Devitt were fourth. Both teams were favourites for a medal having delivered impressive results in qualifying.

Juniors

The first of the final rounds took place last Saturday evening under lights, with the junior teams taking centre stage. Little separated the top placings on the leader board. Following 12 races, England took poll position on 70 points, France and Wales trailed behind by one point, while Ireland was in fourth on 67. With a narrow margin between the teams, it was all to play for on in Sunday’s decider.

Ireland set off strong in the final but a mistake saw the team add just a single point to their tally to finish on 126 points, just behind Wales, on 130 points. The gold medal went to France (138 points) and the silver to England (132).

Open

In the open division, Ireland once again dominated proceedings in the first part of the final, finishing on 82 points, 17 points ahead of their closest rival, England, while France trailed behind on a score of 61 points.

On the second day of the final, it was clearly a battle between Ireland and England. Ireland started off strongly again, but things began to turn when they were eliminated in the pony pairs race.

Although the Irish squad made up ground after this, the pressure was on from England. It was at the joust race that the standings changed, with England overtaking Ireland.

Just three points separated England and Ireland in the final speed weaver race. Although the Irish team dominated this race and went on to win, England’s second place was enough to maintain their lead to finish on a total score of 133, while Ireland finished on 131 points and France on 123 points.