Steve Guerdat wins World Cup jumping in Helsinki

Namely Paula de Boer-Schwarz and her congenial OS mare My Miss Marple. With this twelve-year-old daughter of Mylord Carthago, Paula de Boer-Schwarz – currently number 985 in the world rankings – has already shown her competitors how it’s done on many occasions. Today was no exception.

They were the first pair to attempt the course designed by Brazil’s Guilherme Jorge. They made the Jorges’ task with 13 obstacles and 16 jumps look like child’s play and galloped over the finish line without any faults. “I think I’m the happiest person in the world right now,” she beamed after this round.

The fact that the course was anything but child’s play became clear as the competition progressed. In the end, only seven pairs made it into the jump-off, including Paula de Boer Schwarz and big names such as France’s Kevin Staut and Marc Dilasser as well as three-time World Cup winner Steve Guerdat.

The Swiss triple Olympic champion had saddled the twelve-year-old Bamako de Muze son Iashin Sitte today, who looks rather unimpressive at first glance, but who has such a clever way of expending just the energy he needs at the jump and is quick and agile at the same time that he seems to be made for indoor jump-offs in particular. He was already victorious in this way in Leipzig in January.

The pricking

As the order from the round was adhered to in the jump-off, Paula de Boer-Schwarz and My Miss Marple had to go first. Once again, the pair celebrated their long-standing partnership with a clear round. But it was clear that the time of 43.36 seconds would be beatable.

It didn’t take long. Belgian rider Viktor Daem and his Zirocco Blue daughter Kavaliers Blue – as number 656 in the world rankings also more of an outsider pair – were the second pair in the jump-off and beat the time by just under a second. The clock stopped at 42.49 seconds. A huge success for the pair even at that moment.

Kevin Staut wanted to be the third starter. After a furious performance in the jump-off in the Grand Prix yesterday, he thought he was on the road to victory when Kenki Sato made the seemingly impossible possible and left him behind after all. Today he had saddled the ten-year-old Vigo d’Arsouilles-daughter Vida Loca Z, who did her job in just 37.54 seconds. However, she picked up a pole on the way. The dream of victory was over for Staut.

Then it was Steve Guerdat’s turn to try his luck with Iashin Sitte. Guerdat explained that the chestnut horse can be a bit of a bugger. That’s why the victory in Leipzig was something of an eye-opener. A repeat would be ideal. Then Guerdat would be guaranteed a place in the final despite the delayed start to the season due to his back surgery. He showed all his riding class, Iashin Sitte did the rest – a faultless 38 seconds was the new record.

No one was able to beat them until the end – even though the Norwegian Oda Charlotte Lyngvaer and her twelve-year-old Carrera VDL daughter Carabella vd Neyen Z came dangerously close to four hundredths of a second. She ended up in second place. The two remaining pairs, Marc Dilasser on Arioso des Gevres and Giampiero Garofalo with Querido van’t Ryutershof, both had one knockdown like Staut.

Guerdat was thus crowned the winner. Lyngvaer finished a sensational second ahead of Viktor Daem and the German surprise Paula de Boer-Schwarz.

She was not the only German in the money. Thanks to fast four-fault rounds, Patrick Stühlmeyer on Baloutaire PS and Philipp Schulze Topphoff with Carla NRW, who is new toiesenbeck, also made it into the placings in 12th and 13th place.

Guerdat – first season goal achieved

Winning is always nice – winning when it counts is even more so. Steve Guerdat: “We made the whole journey here just to get the points that still qualified us for the final. I didn’t want to mess it up!”

He succeeded in doing so and has already achieved one of his goals for the season. “I think anyone in the sport or who knows me knows that I have a special relationship with the World Cup series, especially the final. Growing up, it was a tournament I knew about and that motivated me to be a part of it myself one day. Now I’m a small part of the history of the World Cup and it still motivates me a lot.”

He has already won the title three times. But he is not the only one. Marcus Ehning, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, Rodrigo Pessoa, Hugo Simon – others have achieved this feat before him. But no rider has ever won the World Cup Final four times. Guerdat could therefore write show jumping history in Fort Worth.

The finalists have been announced

But there are a whole host of competitors who would like to prevent that and jump onto the top step of the podium themselves. Helsinki was the last World Cup stage of the Western European League. Guerdat, in ninth place, is a certainty.

Willem Greve leads the ranking ahead of defending champion Julien Epaillard and Daniel Deußer. In addition to the latter, Richard Vogel is also safely qualified in seventh place – and Philipp Schulze Topphoff and Patrick Stühlmeyer also have a small “Q” for “qualified” after their names in the available places.

You can find the complete list here.

The results from Helsinki can be found here.