Ireland’s senior show jumping team made a second round comeback at the Nations Cup in Aachen to finish in second place behind Germany.

The team of Cameron Hanley with Quirex, Shane Sweetnam with Chaqui Z, Cian O’Connor with Good Luck and Darragh Kenny with Babalou were in fifth place after the first round.

Sweetnam and O’Connor lodged clear second rounds, while Kenny added a single time fault to the team total. This saw Ireland overtake Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands to finish as runners up.

Kenny added to his Nations Cup success finishing fourth in the €1 million Aachen Rolex Grand Prix. He partnered the 13-year-old mare Babalou who is owned by Jack Snyder.

Kenny was one of five riders to jump clear and make it into the jump off. The combination were drawn first into the jump off and unfortunetly picked up 12 faults. Once again it was the home nation who claimed the top prize as Germany’s Marcus Ehning, riding Pret A Tout, won the class.

Evans on the road to recovery

Irish event rider Jonty Evans regained conciousness last week. In a statement released by his family on Friday it was announced that Evans has regained consciousness and is beginning to interact positively with the medical team and his family.

The statement read: “We are pleased to report that over the past 10 days Jonty’s condition has continued to slowly improve. Jonty has now regained consciousness and is beginning to interact positively with the medical team and his family.

“Jonty is having physiotherapy and rehabilitation sessions, which will continue for the foreseeable future as he regains strength and his head injury continues to improve. Due to the need for Jonty to remain in a quiet and calm environment for a significant period of time, and to continue his recovery as privately as possible, the medical team have advised the family to keep visitors strictly to a minimum.”

The 46-year-old had been unconscious for almost six weeks following a fall he sustained at Tattersalls International Horse Trials at the beginning of June.

Evans was riding his Rio Olympic mount Cooley Rorkes Drift in the CIC3* class when he fell off and suffered a serious brian injury.