THE Irish show jumping team are 0.08 of a penalty away from the podium and less than a point from the gold medal heading into tomorrow’s team final at the FEI European Jumping Championships in Milan.

In a day which saw the lead at the top of team standings change, Ireland remains in fourth place with it all to play for as top 10 teams go head-to-head. The top of the table is so tight that Ireland are less than a single time fault off the gold medal, currently held by Germany who moved up from third overnight and sit on 9.31.

Sweden have dropped to second place on 9.51, ahead of Switzerland (9.92) and Ireland (10.0). The rest of the teams trail the top four, with Austria chasing on 16.77 and the home nation of Italy still within that Paris Olympic Games qualification slot in sixth.

Speaking after his clear round, Shane Sweetnam commented: “We’re feeling very positive and everybody’s jumping well, but you have to take it round by round and it’s still a long way ‘til tomorrow evening.

"My mum will be at mass tomorrow morning and hopefully she’ll say a few prayers for us – we always need a bit of luck.”

There were plenty of shocks throughout the day, none more so that the much-fancied Belgian team missing out of team final qualification in 11th place, while Britain had another disappointing day – their only clear coming from reigning Olympic champion Ben Maher – but they sneak into the final in 10th place. Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Hungary were the other teams to miss out.

Fredricson holds on

Individually, Jens Fredricson holds on to the top spot after another flawless round over Uliano Vezzani’s big 1.60m track. The final line – particularly the final fence – caught a number of competitors throughout the day, including Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs who dropped from second place to 15th after the last fence fell late despite a freakishly good round from Leone Jei (4.28).

Just 14 combinations delivered clears today and they included Ireland's Michael Duffy with Hibernian Sport Horses’ Cinca 3 who is now in 10th place after a brilliant round to get Ireland underway. They sit on a score of 2.18, yet to touch a fence at the championship.

Michael Duffy and Cinca 3 at the FEI Jumping European Championships in Milan \ Tomas Holcbecher

Just behind him in 12th place (2.87) is Shane Sweetnam who produced a phenomenal round with the big jumping Irish Sport Horse James Kann Cruz (Kannan x Cruising), bred by Patrick Connolly and owned by Gizmo Partners LLC, putting yesterday’s four faults firmly behind.

Eoin McMahon – eighth after yesterday’s first round – dropped to 16th place with Ludger Beerbaum’s Mila (4.95) after clipping the back bar on the oxer after the open water (fence 12). Ireland had to count his four faults as Trevor Breen completed with two fences down aboard Heather Black’s home-bred gelding Highland President (12.04) to be the discard score.

Individual rider Denis Lynch sits in 21st place after another solid round with the 10-year-old stallion Vistogrand. The pair picked up four faults at fence four to currently score 6.70.

Germany’s Philipp Weishaupt (Zineday) has moved into second place, ahead of Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat (Dynamix de Belheme) who is competing at his ninth European Championships.

Tomorrow (Friday) will see the team medals handed out. Action gets under at 13.30 local time (12.30 Irish time).

Team standings

Individual standings