A STUNNING cross country clear from Alfie Buller and a true pathfinder's round from Olympic veteran David Foster have put Ireland within shouting distance of breaking its Olympic duck in the three day event. With the team lying fifth overnight, three good show jumping rounds today could finally reward the Irish eventers with the Olympic medal that has taken on holy grail proportions.
Foster, fourth out on to the cross country at the ungodly hour of 8.24 a.m. yesterday morning, provided the Irish squad with a perfectly judged, morale boosting clear from the 12 year old Duneight Carnival after two out of the first three starters had fallen.
Foster nearly made a closer acquaintance with the Georgia turf than he was planning when the big chestnut came heart stoppingly close to hitting the deck on the turn to the second water. After that narrow escape and without the benefit of any feedback on how the course was riding, Foster erred on the side of caution to come home with 36 time faults.
Olympic debutante Virginia McGrath was determined to follow suit, but she and The Yellow Earl fell foul of the tricky bank and hedge combination coming out of the first water. Britain's Ian Stark had a ghastly looking fall with Stanwick Ghost at the same obstacle, but went on to complete.
With McGrath incurring 80 penalties for a stop and a fall there, plus a further 20 for a refusal at the farmyard complex three from home, there was even more pressure on Alfie Buller to keep the Irish flag flying. He left the start box with all guns blazing and rocketed around the 25 fence track in superlative style to bring the 12 year old thoroughbred Sir Knight through the finish flags just 38 seconds over the optimum for 15.6 time faults.
That was just the spark needed to rekindle the Irish tinderbox and Eric Smile making his fifth championship appearance with the talented grey Enterprise sett off like a man inspired. Unfortunately, the inspiration faded at the troublesome Indian Sweat Houses, a difficult bounce that caused numerous falls during the day, including one in which New Zealand's Vicky Latta was lucky to escape with just a sore neck.
The Irish number four picked up 20 penalties for a stop here and another momentary breakdown in communications at the second water resulted in a doubling of that tally. But the pair still finished only 41 seconds over the time and their end of day score was good enough to keep the Irish well in touch going into today's show jumping, just seven rails shy of a bronze medal.
Defending champions Australia produced three sensational clears to shoot up the placings from overnight sixth into a magnificent lead, with 14 fences in hand of the America's dressage leaders, who relinquished the lead when Karen O'Connor and the usually 110 per cent reliable Biko stopped at the second water complex boathouse.
The Kiwis, currently lying third, held a similar advantage over their Antipodean rivals in Barcelona four years ago, but Andrew Nicholson's final nightmare round left poles from nine fences on the ground to hand team gold to the Australians.
Only Andrew Roy remains from the 1992 quartet, following the removal of Gill Rolton to hospital with suspected broken ribs and collarbone from falls on the flat and in the water. But Roy has a jumping machine in the grey Darien Powers and is well backed up by Philip Dutton (True Blue Girdwood) and Wendy Schaeffer (Sunburst). The trio will be hoping to reproduce the Barcelona result in Atlanta today.
France, whose last starter, Jacgoes Duly and Upont, were the only ones to get inside the optimum time, split Ireland from the medallists, with the British sixth, just ahead of Japan, the only country to post four clear rounds.
