THOMAS Ryan was on winning form at Oliva in Spain last week, when he took the top spot in Saturday’s Final Gold 1.45m Jump-off class with Jezebeau BC. From 59 participants, 12 jumped clear in the first round. Eight managed the feat again in the jump-off, with Ryan the fastest of the clears in 37.57 seconds. Spain’s Alberto Marquez Galobardes was the next best, almost a second behind in 38.37.

Week two of the Mediterranean Equestrian Tour ran from last Tuesday, November 5th until Sunday, November 10th and the Irish had hit the ground running, with Ryan a joint winner in Tuesday’s Seven-year-old 1.35m class with both Happy Girl de Berg W and Million’s Grey.

Ryan was placed again in the equivalent class on Thursday, when sixth with Million’s Grey out of 31 starters. Fourteen of the combinations managed to jump double clear rounds, with Ryan stopping the clock in 39.41 in the second phase. The class was won by Belgium’s Koen Vereecke on Fiesta Van Paemel in a time of 33.37.

The Gold 1.30m Two-phase class saw David Simpson on Dallco Chance taking seventh place from a lengthy start list of 79. Simpson jumped double clear with a phase two time of 34.28. The top spot went to Albert Pisarik (CZE) on Chapo 2 (30.72).

In the Bronze 1.30m class on Friday, Eoin Gallagher on Dieu’s Utopia Z placed fourth with a clear round in 64.06. First place went to Marnie Darcy Green (GBR) on Ikar.K in 58.30.

The Bronze 1.35m class saw Anna Carway place third with Ajaccio when clear in 67.82. From the start list of 56, 26 jumped clear, so time was the deciding factor. Mario Bichler (AUT) on Ifrieda W won the class in a very fast time of 64.17.

Meanwhile, the Silver 1.25m class saw Robert Splaine ride Cambridge into sixth place out of 55 starters. They incurred four faults to finish on 73.69, while the winner was Portugal’s Rodrigo Sampaio Peixoto on K.Libra Da Gandarinha (65.81).

Aisling Byrne took a top 10 placing with Celeste Spb Z, when 10th of 60 starters in the Silver 1.30m class on Saturday.

Sunday brought more placings for the Irish, with Neal Fearon and Trevor Breen both in the top 10 of the well-subscribed Gold 1.45m Two-phase class of 80. Fearon placed sixth with Derryglen Obsidian, while Breen was eighth on board Desert Encounter OL.

Simpson and Dallco Chance concluded the show with a fourth place in the Gold 1.30m Jump-off class.

Of the 38 starters, 20 jumped clear to get through to the jump-off, where 15 succeeded in jumping without penalty again. Simpson’s time of 35.21 was just outside of a podium finish, with Sampaio Peixoto (POR) on Quiet Please 13 winning the class in 33.12; with Germany’s Josch Loehden on Lordin 3 second in 33.96 and Denmark’s Kamilla Ladefoged Rasmussen on Chico Z in third on 34.97.