Brazil and Germany have for years dominated the soccer world but today on home territory, a Brazilian took a major prize in a sport where the German’s have had no equal for years. Although their riders were knocked off their World and Olympic showjumping pedestal recently, they are still the ones to beat especially on home soil. But with 18’000 spectators willing it otherwise, Bernardo Alves did just that.
The German GCT Grand Prix was worth a cool 95,000 Euro to the winner and 48 riders from 14 countries had arrived in Hamburg to bid for the prize. The first round course produced a healthy 17 clears who included Albert Zoer on a back to his best Oki Doki, Jos Lansink, Ireland’s Denis Lynch and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum on Shutterfly.
The combination in the second round proved the real bogey fence and it ended the challenge for all of those named above, except Meredith who was clear over the jumps at least. However to the astonishment of the watching crowd the clock stopped showing a time penalty next to their favourite’s name.
Bernardo was the second to go and the first to get a double clear, leaving him in the unenviable position of having to lead off in the third against the clock jump off round when former German national champion Carsten-Otto Nagel joined him on the inform Corradina. Yesterday’s French winner Roger-Yves Bost matched them with Ideal de la Loge and the third round line up was completed when Billy Burr and William Funnel joined them for Great Britain.
When the clock stopped Chupa Chup was clear in 51.05, and when Carsten could not quite catch him, Roger had one rail and William two, a momentous upset had occurred. “I think this has been very great sport today, and it has been a priviledge to see it and even if we did not have a German winner, we are still happy for Bernardo, he rode super” said a member of the German press team later.
The Global Champions Tour moves onto Cannes, France next and details can be found
on www.globalchampionstour.com.
1. Bernardo Alves, Chupa Chup 0 faults 51.05
2. Carsten-Otto Nagal, Corradina 0 faults 51.25
3. Roger-Yves Bost, Ideal de Loge 4 faults 52.08
4. William Funnell, Billy Birr 8 faults 50.16
Quotes
Bernardo Alves: “I have had Chupa Chup about four years, he was called this when I got him and we wanted to change his name at first because those words mean something not so good in Brazilian. It is perhaps lucky we did not. And today it is always difficult being first in the jump off but I thought I had done enough for second at least. Winning is of course better, because I really want to go to the Final in Doha and maybe now I have enough points. It is my first visit to Hamburg and everything has been the best, the arena, the stables for the horses, I will come again.”
Carsten-Otto Nagel: “ Corradina is super consistent, she has been placed in Aachen, Barcelona and Frankfurt, this is her best result. It has taken me a long time to find another horse good enough to reach this level and she is very very good.”
Roger-Yves Bost: “This is my first time in Hamburg, I have also enjoyed it very much. Perhaps I could have gone a bit faster at the beginning of the jump off course but when we made a mistake, the time did not matter anyway, and this is still great for me.”
William Funnell: “Yes, I would have preferred to have won but this is a very god result for the horse. He is home bred and we always knew he would be a good horse. I hope this puts us in contention at least for the European Championships.”
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