Bertram helps Team Ireland claim Olympic qualification for Paris with fourth-place finish at World Championships

On a night of high drama at the ECCO FEI World Show Jumping Championships in Herning, Denmark, an outstanding performance from Michael Blake's Irish Show Jumping team of Denis Lynch, Bertram Allen, Cian O'Connor and Daniel Coyle, saw them take one of the five coveted places on offer for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Published  15.08.2022
At the end of one of the most thrilling nights in the history of the sport, Ireland climbed from overnight ninth place to finish fourth overall and take one of the five Olympic places on offer – and at the finish, missed out on the bronze medal by just one penalty.

Just the top 10 teams from the 22 that started the week made it through to the final under floodlights, with Ireland starting the evening in ninth place overall, carrying forward a score of 17.15 penalties from the first two rounds held on Wednesday and Thursday.

Denis Lynch was first to go, producing an excellent round, picking up just one time fault over what was proving a very difficult course.

Bertram then gave Ireland another huge boost when he jumped an outstanding clear round with Pacino Amiro, as one out of only six clears in the second round, moving Ireland up the places with two riders left to jump for each of the 10 teams.

Third to go for Ireland, Cian O'Connor and C Vier 2 were clear until the penultimate combination where they had one fence down and picked up one time fault for a five fault score. That score from O'Connor would prove vital, as Derry's Daniel Coyle had a couple of fences down with Legacy, after which Coyle decided to retire knowing he couldn't improve Ireland's score.

As the course continued to take it's toll on the world's top horses and riders, Ireland continued to climb the leaderboard and when the last horse crossed the finish beam, Ireland could celebrate an outstanding fourth place finish and a team ticket to the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.

Sweden claimed a well-deserved team gold medal after finishing on a score of just 7.69. Netherlands took silver on 19.31 while Britain just pipped Ireland for bronze on 22.66.

Bertram & Pacino also qualified for the World Championship individual final but decided to travel home and save Pacino after finishing three excellent rounds.

A huge thank you to team manager Michael Blake, all Team Ireland members, our incredible team at Ballywalter, all supporters, longtime sponsors and Buddy's owner Aiden McGrory.
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