SHOWJUMPING: Robert Splaine has been appointed manager to the Irish show jumping team up to and including the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The 52-year-old Corkman was the unanimous choice of an interview panel of five, headed by former Irish Sports Council chairman Pat O'Neill, which met in Dublin yesterday to interview four of the five candidates for the post. Former Show Jumpers Club chairman Jack Doyle withdrew his application over the weekend.
The three unsuccessful applicants were former Irish internationals Tommy Brennan and Tom Slattery and former British team member Malcolm Pyrah.
Contractual details still have to be finalised with Splaine, but it is expected the formalities will be completed by the end of this week.
Ironically, Splaine was in similar contract negotiations with the Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) for the same post last November, but the Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) stepped in and declared the selection process for the team manager's job "flawed and untenable".
A new interview panel was set up last week by the federation, under the chairmanship of O'Neill. The interview board was made up of two EFI representatives, president Charles Powell and secretary general Dan Butler, along with two from the SJAI, national chairman Patricia Furlong and Paraic Geraghty, chairman of the SJAI's international affairs committee, which has traditionally been in charge of team selection.
The EFI have also put in place a new jumping committee to take over the role of selection. Former Army rider John Ledingham has been appointed chairman, and Splaine will now join the committee, along with two as yet unnamed advisors.
Splaine will be in charge of managing the senior international show jumping team for the Nations Cup Super League, which opens at La Baule in France in May, the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany (August 20th-September 3rd), the 2007 European championships and the 2008 Olympics. He will also work with developmental squads.
The Bandon-born rider has been a member of the Irish team for many years and won the prestigious King George V Gold Cup at Hickstead in 1995.
Splaine has already acted as chef d'equipe to Ireland's senior team and will once again be in charge at the opening Nations Cup of the season in Wellington, Florida, this week.
