News is filtering through on the return of Cian O’Connor to the Olympic show jumping circuit, the Olympic Council of Ireland have confirmed his nomination and place on the team. He replaces Denis Lynch who was disqualified after the Nations Cup event in Aachen last week.

O'Connor will jump with his horse Blue Loyd and will join the team alongside Billy Twomey in the individual show jumping event in Greenwich London, starting August 5th.

Whilst the entire storey is rather unusual, and comes as somewhat of a shock to the Irish public at large, it is expected that ousted jockey Lynch will appeal the decision of his disqualification in the coming days.

O'Connor of course represented Ireland in the 2004 Olympic games, winning gold with his horse Waterford Crystal before the horse was later found to have tested positive for a prohibited, but not performance enhancing substance. O'Connor was stripped of his medal and banned from competition for three months.