EQUESTRIAN NEWS: Ireland's elite show jumpers have called for the resignations of chef d'equipe Tommy Wade and the entire selection panel which sacked Eddie Macken as team trainer earlier this week.
A letter from a group of nine riders, including world champion Dermott Lennon, was faxed to the Show Jumping Association of Ireland's (SJAI) headquarters in Kill, Co Kildare, yesterday afternoon. Addressed to the association's national chairman, Charles Hanley, and the chairman of selectors, Peter Leonard, the letter sought the resignations following the sacking of Macken on Wednesday. A copy of the letter was also faxed to the Equestrian Federation of Ireland.
The letter said that Irish team form had deteriorated last season, long before Macken was appointed, when three of the country's top horses - Dermott Lennon's Liscalgot, Billy Twomey's Luidam and Robert Splaine's Coolcorran Cool Diamond - were all sidelined through injury.
The letter also said Macken's request for an input into the selection procedure had been turned down.
"We want Eddie Macken for the long term," the letter continued. "As this is not the opinion of the chairman, selectors and chef d'equipe, we feel we have no other option but to ask for their resignations and, as a matter of urgency, to seek the reinstatement of Eddie Macken as team trainer."
World champion Lennon, four of the six Olympic shortlisted riders - Peter Charles, Kevin Babington, Twomey and Jessica Kurten - Marion Hughes, Harry Marshall, Marie Burke and Edward Doyle, the Co Kildare-based rider who co-ordinated yesterday's move, were all named at the bottom of the letter, but only seven signatures were recorded.
Despite the letter, the selectors are refusing to be swayed.
"We're standing by our decision," Leonard said last night. "It was a clash of personalities between Tommy and Eddie. It was either the old dog or the new dog. One of them had to go. You can only have one chief on any team and, unfortunately for Eddie, that was Tommy. He's delivered the goods for the last five years, so we owe him the courtesy of another chance on his own."
The selection panel, made up of Leonard, Wade, Brendan McArdle, Paul Duffy jnr and Taylor Vard, unanimously agreed on Tuesday that Macken should be removed from his post as team trainer, following a dramatic deterioration in results that has left Ireland languishing at the bottom of the Super League table after the first three Nations Cup shows of the season.
Macken, who was informed of the decision by Leonard on Wednesday, said yesterday the news had come as a bombshell.
"I'm flabbergasted," he said from his home in Vancouver, Canada. "They've sacked me and there's very little I can do, but the riders have contacted me and said that they're disgusted.
"I'm being used as a scapegoat for the performance of the team, but I believe that, with the right preparation, we have a realistic chance of doing well in Athens."
