Concerns have been raised internally at Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) about the processes surrounding a decision not to send a dressage team to the Olympics.
A committee member at the governing body for equestrian sport has written to ministers, Sport Ireland and the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) asking them to intervene in a dispute over a decision to not send riders to the team dressage event in Tokyo.
The correspondence, seen by the Sunday Independent, raises concerns about a HSI’s high performance committee meeting before the decision.
In an email last week to Sport Minister Catherine Martin and Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, committee member Dr David Stickland said “the process of deciding to send a team can be questioned”.
Rider Heike Holstein has been nominated to represent Ireland in the individual dressage event. Other riders were also initially nominated to take part in the team event but are now not in a position to compete.
Dane Rawlins and James Connor hoped to be sent to Tokyo as replacement team members but HSI high performance director Johann Hinnemann advised the board he could not nominate a replacement team. They lost an appeal against this decision last month.
Mr Rawlins and Mr Connor met the international minimum eligibility requirements (MER) to participate in Tokyo but did not meet separate criteria set out by Mr Hinnemann.
Dr Stickland said a committee meeting he attended on June 3 was not made aware James Connor met the minimum requirements to compete until after their discussion.
“The Olympics are about participation, not only about winning, and indeed winning was never on the cards anyway; but participation builds the future and encourages the future generations whereas failure to send a team does the exact opposite,” he wrote.
The Department of Agriculture, which provides funding to HSI, said the issue was a matter for other parties to comment on. A spokeswoman for the Department of Sport said it would be inappropriate for Minister Martin to intervene. Sport Ireland and the OFI said it was a matter for the HSI.
HSI interim CEO Joe Reynolds said MERs achieved by riders were “not an absolute determinant" in whether athletes should be sent to Tokyo. He said there have been two appeals on the matter and HSI would not stand in the way of further inquiries.
James Connor only emerged as a team candidate on June 11 as he had not initially been part of an earlier shortlist for the games considered at a high performance committee meeting earlier that month, Mr Reynolds said. “The committee was supportive and each member of the committee was asked for their views. The overwhelming majority of the committee were in support of the high performance director’s proposal or consideration not to send a team,” he added.
