Ireland's showjumping team have suffered a shock withdrawal after the first qualifying round at the Tokyo Olympics.
Despite Cian O'Connor's decision to withdraw in midweek after his horse Kilkenny suffered a nose bleed during the individual event, it was expected that Ireland could be in the medal mix.
However his replacement, Shane Sweetnam and his horse Alejandro were eliminated from the round after Alejandro lost a shoe and later suffered a fall.
Bertram Allen and Darragh Kenny, who had also competed in the individual event, were due to participate after Sweetnam.
However with the chances of qualification practically non-existent after Sweetnam's elimination, the team decided to withdraw.
“The Irish team have taken the tough decision to withdraw their two remaining horses from today’s Olympic qualifier,” read a statement from Horse Sport Ireland.
“With the new Olympic format of just three riders on a team and no discard score, it was extremely unlikely that Ireland could make it into the top 10 qualifying places as our first combination did not post a completed score.
“Taking this into consideration, the decision has been taken not to jump Pacino Amiro and VDL Cartello and to save them for another day.”
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