Show Jumping - Ireland Through To Super League By A Whisker

Ireland has qualified for next year's prestigious Nations Cup Super League by coming 5th in the Samsung Nations Cup of Athens tonight (Friday).

Ireland and Switzerland were neck-and-neck for the final slot in the world's eight top teams up until today, but Switzerland needed to win the Athens Cup in order to nudge ahead of Ireland on Super League points.

However, when the competition at Athens finished this evening, Switzerland were second to Germany, but lodged an objection to four penalty faults awarded against them at the water jump. With just one penalty point separating Germany and Switzerland, the success of this objection would not only have given the Swiss the No.1 position in the Athens Nations Cup, but would also have qualified them for the Super League above Ireland.

However, the objection was not upheld by the officials at Athens, and Switzerland remained in second place, with not enough Super League points accumulated to take Ireland's place in the world's Top Eight nations.

Super League qualification means that a country can jump at four-star events next season, but failure to qualify means relegation to a <second division> of Nations Cup show jumping, where only three-star events can be entered.

The teams now qualified for Super League status are: Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Gt. Britain, and Ireland.

SHOW JUMPING RESULT: CSIO ATHENS GREECE 3-6 OCTOBER 2002 NATIONS CUP
Friday, October 4, 2002

1) GERMANY 9 penalties
2) SWITZERLAND 10 penalties
3) GT. BRITAIN 13 penalties
4) ITALY 17 penalties
5) IRELAND 20 penalties
Lt. Shane Carey: Killossery 0/4
Cian O'Connor: ABC Landliebe 4/8
Capt. Gerry Flynn: Rincoola Abu 4/0
Lt. David O'Brien: Carraig Dubh Elim

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