Another excellent performance from Denis Lynch in Bordeaux augurs well for the Rolex FEI World Cup final in Gothenburg in April.
At the weekend in Bordeaux, Denis finished in fifth place in the World Cup competition with Thomas Straumann’s gelding Abbervail van het Dingeshof, a tap of the last fence denying him a certain win.
Fifth to go of eight through to the jump-off, the Tipperary rider made a brave attempt to better the 34.5 seconds of German leader Hans-Dieter Dreher and the stallion Magnus Romeo, and though he managed to shave a quarter of a second off Dreher’s time he paid a price of four faults for leaving the very last pole on the floor.
Dreher collected 49,500 euro for his win, while Lynch picked up 9,000 euro. However, the points gained in Bordeaux propel the Irish rider to sixth in the Western European World Cup rankings, on a total of 53 points.
One more qualifying round to go before the finals, that at ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in March. Tipperary’s Lynch is now in sixth position on the Western Europe League lead board headed by Spanish rider, Sergio Moya.
In Florida, Cork’s Shane Sweetnam recorded a hat trick of wins at the Winter equestrian festival.
