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O'Connor and Kilkenny had no fences down but were fractionally outside the time limit. Bryan Keane/INPHO
pipped at the post

Cian O'Connor narrowly misses out on medal jump-off in Olympic showjumping final

O’Connor and Kilkenny finish joint-seventh in Wednesday’s individual final.

IRELAND’S CIAN O’CONNOR agonisingly missed out on a place in the medal jump-off of the Olympic showjumping final by just 0.45 seconds.

O’Connor and his horse Kilkenny were the best of the Irish trio in Wednesday morning’s final at the Tokyo Equestrian Park with no fences down in a time of 88.45 seconds.

However, O’Connor’s time was fractionally outside the 88-second time limit, which saw him incur a single time fault.

With six of the 30-rider field putting in clear rounds, that fault was enough to rule O’Connor out of the jump-off for the medals and give him a share of seventh place.

The 2012 London bronze medallist was the first of the Irish finalists to compete, and hopes were high for both Bertram Allen and Darragh Kenny after both riders put in quick, clear rounds in qualifying on Tuesday.

Neither of them could better O’Connor’s round, however, with Allen finishing 15th on Pacino Amiro and Kenny in 17th on Cartello.

Allen was well inside the time limit, crossing in 84.64, but had two fences down for eight faults.

Kenny was marginally slower, timed at 85.11, but also with eight faults.

The Irish team will return to action on Friday morning in the qualification round of the team showjumping event, with the final set for Saturday morning.

Great Britain’s Ben Maher and Explosion W won the individual gold at the end of a thrilling six-horse jump-off, with Sweden’s Peder Fredricson and All In taking silver ahead of the Netherlands’ Maikel van der Vleuten and Beauville Z in bronze.

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