EQUESTRIAN: Grania Willis reflects on the golden jubilee that was overshadowed by controversy for show jumping's governing body
The Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) reached its half-century in 2004, but the golden moments of the jubilee - most golden of which was undoubtedly Cian O'Connor's Olympic triumph in Athens - were overshadowed by two controversies that were, arguably, the darkest moments in the 50-year history of the sport's governing body.
Tipperary-born Kevin Babington got the Olympic year off to a great start with a brace of wins on the Florida circuit, but a row that was to simmer throughout the first half of the season was already brewing, with the post of team trainer at the centre of the debate. Lieut Col Gerry Mullins, former commanding officer of the Army Equitation School, had been given the job, but the appointment failed to receive unanimous support and Eddie Macken threw his hat into the ring.
Mullins stepped aside to allow Macken don the trainer's mantle in mid-February, but results at the early Samsung Super League fixtures were not encouraging.
Several noteworthy individual results were recorded, with Kevin Babington claiming victory in the La Baule Grand Prix and O'Connor notching up an incredible succession of speed-class victories with the mare ABC Landliebe. But a string of poor performances in the opening three legs of the Super League left Ireland languishing at the bottom of the table.
With the spectre of relegation looming, tension among the elite riders reached crisis point when show jumping's international selectors sacked Macken two days after the close of the Swiss Nations Cup fixture in Lucerne. A week later, the brown stuff well and truly hit the fan when the rank and file members of the SJAI demanded Macken's reinstatement as trainer.
There were calls for the resignation of the entire selection panel and a proposal that Macken should also replace Tommy Wade in the roll of chef d'equipe.
Wade had his final outing as chef at Rotterdam and, determined to prove his worth, galvanised the riders to produce a valuable third-place finish that had the double benefit of elevating Ireland from the bottom rung of the league table.
But it wasn't enough to keep the Tipperary man at the helm. With Macken disinclined towards double-jobbing, Colonel Ned Campion took up the reins at Aachen in mid-July when a double clear from O'Connor and Waterford Crystal lifted the team to fourth.
O'Connor, already assured of a place on the Athens squad, had to fight for home-ground selection at Dublin three weeks later. Aachen hero Waterford Crystal was hors de combat, but O'Connor got the nod with Irish Independent Annabella. It was Corkman Billy Twomey who became the man of the moment, however, when a double clear with Luidam clinched victory to leg Ireland further up the rankings.
It was the perfect pre-Athens morale booster, but Twomey's hopes of an Olympic debut were shattered at the last minute when Luidam, nominated only as reserve horse due to intermittent soundness problems, was withdrawn lame. Army rider Lt Shane Carey was drafted in as a replacement, but it was O'Connor, Babington, Jessica Kurten and Marion Hughes who lined out for Ireland.
Niall Griffin, best of the Irish at Punchestown when finishing third with Lorgaine, carried the flag for Team Ireland at the opening ceremony. But the medals dangled out of reach of both the eventers and lone dressage rider, Heike Holstein.
The eventers finished a disappointing eighth in a competition marred by controversy that saw the Germans win and then lose team and individual gold due to Bettina Hoy's double crossing of the show jumping start line.
The drama attached to the show jumping medals took rather longer to surface, however. Ireland's team hopes slumped to seventh, with Germany claiming the title, but, on the final night in the Markopoulo complex, O'Connor struck a glorious blow for Irish fans by winning gold - our only medal of the Games and first Olympic equestrian medal.
A hero's welcome awaited O'Connor back home, but the dream turned sour six weeks later when news broke that Waterford Crystal had failed a dope test taken immediately after his gold-medal winning performance in Athens. It was a devastating blow, but worse was to come when, just two days later, O'Connor admitted his top speed mare ABC Landliebe had also tested positive for banned substances in Rome at the end of May.
Protesting his innocence throughout, O'Connor found the media spotlight rather more glaring than in the euphoric days immediately after Athens. But things got rapidly worse when Waterford Crystal's B urine sample was stolen, and then documentation taken in an alleged break-in at the Irish Equestrian Federation (IEF) offices was faxed anonymously to RTÉ.
With the urine sample out of the picture, the international governing body despatched Waterford Crystal's B blood sample to a New York laboratory for confirmatory analysis, but it was O'Connor himself who announced the results. Waterford Crystal had tested positive for two human anti-psychotic drugs, fluphenazine and zuclopenthixol.
O'Connor was given 15 days to prepare his defence, but was then granted an extension to December 13th. That deadline was further extended and O'Connor now has until January 7th to present his submissions to the FEI prior to an oral hearing before the judicial committee later in the month. Show jumping's golden jubilee will be over by then, but will O'Connor's gold live on or will it become the fourth Athens equestrian medal to change hands?
