Less than a blink of an eye separated the top three in the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final I Speed Round on Thursday evening. Two-time Olympic gold medalist McLain Ward (USA) claimed the victory on HH Azur, stopping the Longines timers in 59.27 seconds, just fractions of a second ahead of Henrik von Eckermann (SWE) and Mary Lou with 59.58. Two-time defending World Cup™ Champion Steve Guerdat (SUI) was third on Bianca in 60.06 seconds.
“I never won a class without a little luck. There were a few places where I could have been a little smoother, but you have a little bit of anxiety on the first night,” said Ward. “I thought the course was big enough for the first night. In reality there was just a whisker between the three of us, I was just a bit fortunate.