Paris 2024: Irish show jumpers Shane Sweetnam and Daniel Coyle excel en route to individual final

Shane Sweetnam and Daniel Coyle both shone for Team Ireland as they finished among the top three on the board in the qualifiers for the Individual Show Jumping final at Paris 2024.

The duo, riding James Kann Cruz and Legacy respectively, both secured two of the three fastest clear rounds of the day among the 73 of 74 contenders that participated at Versailles to ease into tomorrow's final round in style.

However, Cian O’Connor, riding Maurice, missed out on joining his team-mates in the final by just three positions and less than two seconds.

The trio of Irish riders had finished seventh collectively in the Team Showjumping final last Friday but three days on, Sweetnam, Coyle and O'Connor were all aiming to make the top 30 in the individual competition for a place in Tuesday's final round.

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Sweetnam, aboard James Kann Cruz, was the first of the Irish on the running order, riding in 13th overall and he made an excellent start by setting the fastest clear run of the first 52 riders with no faults in a time of 73.35, virtually guaranteeing his place in the final with more then three-quarters of the the competitors still to come.

"He jumped amazing," Sweetnam told RTÉ Sport. "Important to get a clear round there.

"[He was] Bred in Galway by the Connolly family, an amazing horse and it keeps getting better and better.

"The team [event] was disappointing, but we were knocking on the door until the very end and that’s all you can really ask. I’ve been at this a long time so to