Time for the riders to shine in the first round of the Longines World Cup™ Final

After an exciting season it is finally time for the final of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ and the best riders in the world have gathered in Gothenburg to compete for the gold. The first round is a speed class and the results will affect the ranking of the riders all the way to the big final on Sunday.

The first round of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Finals started out with a bang as the 25-year-old Belgian rider Olivier Philippaerts sat a clear round with the time of 61,43 seconds and immediately taking the lead. The Belgian tribe continued to shine as all riders were clear with a quick time in the first leg of the world cup, all ending up within the top-ten. The Swedish riders had unfortunate faults, Peder Fredricson ending on an 11^th place with H&M All In, Henrik von Eckermann and Toveks Mary Lou on a 16^th place and Irma Karlsson with Ida van de Bisschop on 22th place.

Defending champion from Paris 2018, Bezie Madden, rode a fast round with her horse Breitling LS, but unfortunately had the last fence down. The winner of 2016, Steve Guerdat, showed that he wanted to stay on the podium once again and won the first round with an incredible time of 61,28 seconds together with his horse Alamo.

Today’s course consisted of fences with the height of 1,55 to 1,60 centimetres and tricky lines, leading to only 10 riders being clear out of the total 33. The top-three placed from the first round of the finals were:

1.Steve Guerdat – Alamo

2.Pieter Devos – Apart

3.Olivier Philippaerts – H&M Legend of Love

More information about Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Finals and the results can be found here­­.