TIPPERARY’s Denis Lynch continued his brilliant run of form, with a runner-up finish in today’s (Sunday) five-star Longines World Cup Class at Zurich in Switzerland today (Sunday).

The second place finish netted Lynch €40,000 and gives him a great chance of making the World Cup finals at the end of March. It also boosts Ireland’s hopes of securing a second individual place at the Olympic Games in Rio.

Riding the Thomas Straumann-owned stallion All Star, Lynch was narrowly pipped for victory by Swiss rider Pius Schwizer and PSG Future, who scored a win in front of their home fans.

It was the third time in a fortnight that Lynch and All Star finished second in a major five-star contest as part of a charge up the Olympic ranking list.

They were runners-up in the last World Cup round at Leipzig in Germany and also finished second in the Longines Grand Prix in Zurich on Friday night.

This latest result increases Ireland’s hopes of qualifying two individual riders for the Show Jumping competition at the Olympic Games in Rio. 

Bertram Allen looks likely to secure a place for Ireland based on his current Olympic ranking but the result today will move Denis Lynch into strong contention to take a second place for Ireland ahead of the cut off date on March 6th.

While the places are secured by individual riders, Olympic places are allocated to the country of the riders involved.