COLONEL Ned Campion, chef d'equipe of Ireland's showjumping team, intends going out with all guns blazing in today's team decider, even though his squad bares very little resemblance to the quartet that took Nations' Cup honours at Aachen, Dublin and Calgary last year.

American weekly Horseplay Magazine has named the Irish as favourites for team honours which, although flattering, is fairly unrealistic following the loss of Eddie Macken's top horse, Miss FAN, through injury and Army star Kilbaha through a lung infection. The team is also minus Cruising, after the horse's owner, Mary McCann, refused to put the brilliant grey up for selection, believing that the Atlanta summer could pose a health threat to her stallion.

Even with his second string horse, Eddie Macken provided an exhibition round of jumping in Monday's qualifier, with the Dutch gelding Schalkhaar unlucky to trail off one pole. Eight fault rounds from both Diamond Exchange (Jessica Chesney) and Arthos (Damien Gardiner) can definitely be improved upon and Colonel Campion believes that Peter Charles's mount, Benetton, will be better on his second outing in the giant stadium.

The grey, who missed four days work after standing on a nail, hit three fences on Monday, but an increased work schedule will have taken the unwanted exuberance out of the horse and Charles will be hoping for a much more biddable partner when he acts as Irish pathfinder this morning.

Campion believes that although today's track will be challenging, it will not offer the extreme dimensions that have characterised Olympic Games in the past. "It won't be a gut buster," he said yesterday. "Every horse here should be capable of jumping a Nations' Cup track and a tight time is another way, of separating the top horses.

Campion tips the Germans as strong favourites for the team honours to make amends for the disaster in Barcelona four years ago when they finished 11th. But the Germans did have the 1992 individual champion in Ludger Beerbaunt who looks set to maintain his supremacy after jumping a superb clear on Monday with Ratina, the mare that Holland's Piet Raymakers rode to team gold and individual silver in Barcelona.