The Irish senior eventing team won team silver and Padraig McCarthy also claimed individual silver. Not only is this a tremendous results in its own right but it also secures Ireland Olympic qualification for Tokyo 2020.

The competition was tough and had the added interference of a hurricane hitting the American venue on Sunday. This resulted in the final show jumping phase being pushed back a day. The Irish team of Sarah Ennis, Padraig McCarthy, Sam Watson and Cathal Daniels were in seventh place after dressage, with Germany in the lead.

Saturday’s cross country proved to be very influential and saw the Irish team move up to team silver. Germany dropped down the leaderboard and Great Britain moved into gold.

Irish individual rider Patricia Ryan produced the first clear round in the show jumping phase on Monday. The Irish team members held their own in the show jumping. Cathal Daniels and Rioghan Rua had one pole down to finish 26th, Sam Watson and Horseware Ardagh Highlight jumped clear to finish 14th.

Ennis and McCarthy were both in the top 10 going into the main arena. A clear round from McCarthy and Mr Chunky left them as indivual silver medallists. Sarah Ennis and Horseware Stellor Rebound had an unlucky pole down dropping them from third to fifth.

Eventing high performance manager Sally Corscadden reflected on the result: “It’s huge, we are making history today. To be here today is just absolutely fantastic. I had belief in these guys that we could be competitive and we stuck to that goal and here we are.”

Team and individual gold to Great Britain, with Ros Canter claiming the top spot at her first ever World Equestrian Games. Team bronze went to France and individual bronze went to Germany’s Ingrid Kilmke.