Irish riders finished their three-day event campaign on a high to claim fifth at Sydney's Horsley Park.

As Australia steam-rollered to an overall victory with 146.80 penalties - 11.20 ahead of Great Britain and the United States 175.80 - the showjumping section saw the Irish quartet of Nicola Cassidy, Virginia McGrath, Susan Shortt and Patricia Donegan move up one place after the previous day's cross country.

Elsewhere on day four of the Olympics, 19-year-old Andrew Bree broke his 200 metres breast-stroke personal best of 2:18.44 in his heat by 0.50sec when finishing fifth.

The 6ft 5in swimmer, who goes off to the University of Tennessee in December, was 4.04secs behind winner Daniel Malek of Czechoslovakia.

Cork's Michael Roche was eliminated in his first-round bout when Turkey's Firat Karagollu defeated him by 4.17 points.

The men's K1 first qualifying round saw canoeist Ian Wiley finish 19th behind winner Helmut Oblinger, of Austria.

In the second race Wiley improved to 16th as Switzerland's Mathias Roethenmund emerged triumphant, scoring a total of 253.02 points.

Thirty-two-year-old Wiley, who prepared for the event in Nottingham and was eighth in the 1992 Games, scored 266.42 points.