Irish riders Cian O'Connor and Darragh Kenny made the perfect start to 2010 by taking major wins across two continents on Sunday.

O'Connor, who's final competition of 2009 resulted in his win in the Olympia Grand Prix kicked off the New Season with a major bang in the 4* Show in Basel in Switzerland.  Having already landed two classes with Irish Independent Echo Beach over the weekend and a second with Splendor, O'Connor took his Olympia winner Rancorrado for the Grand Prix at the inaugural running of the show.

Although both Jessica Kuerten and Billy Twomey faulted in the first round, the eventual winner and Denis Lynch made no such mistake and they were two of the four clears to make it to the deciding round.

Lynch however, took 20 faults to leave him in fourth.  However, O'Connor who was last to go only needed a clear to ensure of victory.  A steady clear round with a single time fault was enough for him to secure the €37,000 first prize. 

"Days like today, though, are the result of a lot of hard work down through the years from a lot of people, but the main accolades must go to the horses," said the Meath-based rider.

Jessica Kuerten also made the top spot in Basel by taking a double of wins with Castle Forbes Cosma to make the Irish tally to five wins in total at the CSI 4* show.

Meanwhile in America on the opening weekend of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, Darragh Kenny took a second win in a World Cup Qualifier at the CSI 2* show in Glen Cove Springs.

The 21 year old now holds a strong hand for qualification to the World Cup Finals in Geneva in April having taken a win in Syracruise in November.  Again riding the 14 year old Obelix, Kenny provided a faultless performance to take home the €20,800 top prize ahead of Maclain Ward and Lauren Hough.

Irish Team Chef D'Equip Robert Splaine commented on the successful Irish weekend by saying; This has been a fantastic week for Irish show jumping and a great start for the sport in 2010. All our riders excelled, with Cian O'Connor and Jessica Kurten taking five wins between them at Basel, and Cian winning the show's leading rider award against a really high-class field of international riders.

"In America we also had Darragh Kenny winning the World Cup Qualifier at Green Cove Springs in Florida.   To win two World Cup Qualifiers is an outstanding achievement, and this should now put Darragh in a very strong position to qualify for the World Cup Final in Geneva this April. These results certainly augur well for the rest of the year's show jumping.''

O'CONNOR MAKES HISTORY BY WINNING THE OLYMPIA GRAND PRIX

Cian O'Connor and Roncorrado have proved integral parts to the Irish Nations Cup team this year and topped off the year winning in Olympia. They are pictured left in the Aga Khan in August.

Kildare born Cian O'Connor rounded off a great week at Olympia last night by reversing fortunes with Sunday's World Cup winner Erik Van Der Vleuten.

Riding Aileen Bryan's Rancorrado, O'Connor was the second last rider into the arena and produced a foot perfect round to put them into the jump off.  Last to go Michael Whitaker and GIG Amai were added to that list to make six combinations for the deciding round in the final class of the prestigious show.

Some of the World's best riders made it to the Jump off including this year European Champion Kevin Staut, and the afformentioned, Whitaker and Van Der Vleuten.

With the opening three riders all producing faults in their jump off round it was left to Van Der Vleuten to take home the first clear round and he did not dissappoint to add some pressure to O'Connor and Whitaker.  They broke the beam clear in 36.02 to move into a provisional lead.

No Irish rider has won this Grand Prix since Eddie Macken took the honours in 1987 and O'Connor started off with plenty of intent.  He was very quick over the first two fences and took a stride out to the 1.60m Alltech Verticle. Next was the double and there was a slight miscommunication approaching but the pair managed to come out clear.  Although the rider lost a stirrup they continued at the same pace makeing a superb turn over the massive red oxer at the top of the arena before making a dash to the last.  They crossed the line clear in 35.49 to move into the lead.

O'Connor's fate was sown up early on in Michael Whitaker's round when they faltered coming out of the double to hand the class to the Irishman along with a cheque for €15,000.

An understandably delighted O'Connor commented: "You can imagine how I feel tonight, " he said, "first of all to be invited by the organisers, for which I am very grateful, and then to compete with, take on and beat some of the best horse and rider combinations in the world. It's a very nice Christmas present for myself, my staff, and for Rancorrado's owner, Aileen Bryan. I'm really overjoyed."

Irish Team Manager Robert Splaine led the tributes by saying: "It is a tribute to the class of this horse that he was able to reverse the result from last night under such pressure. Cian and Rancorrado have been the backbone of the Irish show jumping team all year and to win here, at one of the world's most prestigious Grands Prix, confirms their true form."

Cameron Hanley, Claremorris on SIEC Livello pulled off one of his biggest wins in Showjumping at Kiel North Germany 4 Star, winning the Masters Grand Prix from 40 starters. Owned by Turkey's Sevil Sabanci, 'Livello' went clear through both rounds in the six-horse jump off, and 36-year-old Hanley shaded German ace Franke Sloothaak by a fifth of a second to claim the first prize of an Audi car. He also had a good day on Saturday getting 3rd with Southwind VDL and 4th with SIEC Aristo on whom he won the Welcome Stakes on ThursdayMeanwhile, Tipperary's Denis Lynch was not far behind to claim the third prize of €6,000 with a double clear on Thomas Straumann's nine-year-old gelding 'Tarpan'.

Mayo-born Hanley and 'SIEC Livello' took an individual fourth place for Ireland at the European Show Jumping Championships at Windsor in England in August of this year.

Elsewhere this weekend, a single fence down in the jump-off denied Jessica Kurten victory in the Rolex World Cup competition at Helsinki in Finland, but a sixth place still yielded €6,500 in prize money for the 39-year-old Antrim native. With Lady Georgina Forbes's 'Castle Forbes Cosma', Kurten was one of ten through to the jump-off in the weekend's feature class, but was also one of five not to produce a zero score.The winner's prize of €23,000 and valuable World Cup points went to Switzerland's Daniel Etter and the Westphalian gelding 'Peu a Peu'.

Kurten had a fifth place in this morning's International Speed Final with the bay stallion 'Castle Forbes Vivaldo van het Costerveld', who had also produced a second place in Saturday's Power and Speed competition at the four-star German show.

The Rhineland-based rider was 11th in Saturday's Helsinki Grand Prix, rising 'Castle Forbes Cosma'.

SHOW JUMPING RESULTS: CSI4* KIEL GERMANY OCTOBER 15 - 18 2009
Holsteiner Masters Grand Prix
International Jumping Competition
Table A acc. to Art. 238.2.2 1m55
Sunday, October 18th 2009
1) S.I.E.C. Livello; Cameron Hanley (IRL) Faults 0.00/0.00 Time 34.85
2) Allegro LS La Silla; Franke Sloothaak (GER) Faults 0.00/0.00 Time 34.97
3) Tarpan; Denis Lynch (IRL) Faults 0.00/0.00 Time 35.57

CSI4*-W HELSINKI FINLAND OCTOBER 15 - 18 2009ROLEX FEI WORLD CUP, PRESENTED BY FIM
International Jumping Competition
Table A with one Jump Off
FEI Art. 238.2.2, 1m60
Sunday, October 18th 2009
1) PEU A PEU; Daniel ETTER (SUI) Faults 0.00/0.00 Time 36.80
2) QUICK STUDY; Lauren HOUGH (USA) Faults 0.00/0.00 Time 37.08
3) VDL GROEP TOMBOY; Eric VAN DER VLEUTEN (NED) Faults 0.00/0.00 Time 38.17
6) CASTLE FORBES COSMA; Jessica KURTEN (IRL) Faults 0.00/4.00 Time 37.60