Live updates from the World Championships Show Jumping Individual Final
4:58 p.m. STEVE GUERDAT IS WORLD CHAMPION!
What a round. Effortless, confident, and flawless. Dynamix de Belheme also cleared the fifth course without touching a rail. The Swiss pair is world champion! Well deserved—a dream ride that caps off a unique week for the pair.
4:54 p.m.
Piergiorgio Bucci (ITA) and Hantano are jumping with confidence. Plenty of height over the bars, energetic cantering. It looks like a podium finish. But then, on the last jump—just like with Daniel Deußer—a knockdown! Is the medal gone?
4:51 p.m.
Roberto Teran Tafur (COL) and Dez’ Ooktoff make a jumping error: This could cost them the bronze medal, which was within their grasp.
4:47 p.m.
: Daniel Deußer and Otello de Guldenboom gallop calmly toward the first oxer, and although they touch the double combination, nothing happens. A slight contact with the hind legs at the Sparkasse steep jump (No. 7). Then everything went well. But then: At the final jump, Daniel Deußer perhaps kept his hand on Otello’s back just a split second too long, and Otello couldn’t make the final stride. A fault, resulting in 8.86 penalty points in the final World Championship standings.
4:44 p.m.
Thibeau Spits from Belgium rides a clear round!
4:41 p.m.
Marcus Ehning and Coolio deliver a textbook round, were it not for the entry into the double combination. He knocks it down, just as Sophie Hinner did earlier.
4:39 p.m.
Sophie Hinners and Iron Dames Singclair—they’re on the course, and the crowd holds its breath. They clear the entry to the double combination, then the Dom oxer as well—jump number six. Once again, their style is flawless, and they secure a top-ten finish in their World Championship debut.
4:36 p
.m.
French rider Nina Mallevay doesn’t approach jump three ideally early in the course. Dynastie de Beaufour makes a hind-leg fault at the Mercedes-Benz oxer. And to top it off, she also picks up a time penalty.
4:33 p.m.
Abdel Said and Wathnan Quaker Brimbelles Z, competing for Belgium, had a stop at the approach to the double combination. On their second attempt, the 11-year-old gelding cleared the first steep jump but stopped short of the second. Disqualified.
4:29 p.m.
In the end, the results speak for themselves: At the start of the World Championships, it looked as though Harry Charles, riding the Holsteiner mare LT Holst Freda by Colman, wasn’t in the kind of form one would hope for at a World Championship. In the final tally, the pair emerged as the best British combination on the team that won the bronze medal.
4:27 p.m.
The Spaniard Armando Trapote and Tornado are racking up mistakes. This pair is just not fun to watch. It’s not good publicity for the sport, unfortunately.
4:22 p.m. NO! Scott Brash takes a fall
It all looked so easy! Scott Brash and Hello Mango, one of the horses that has jumped its way into the spotlight here, got off to a confident start. Then Hello Mango made a mistake at the entry to the triple jump—the horse jumped through the oxer. Brash was thrown from the saddle over the horse’s left shoulder and remained lying among the poles. The mare cleared the landing without a rider. Brash remained on the ground. Screens shielded him from curious onlookers. After a few moments, the screens were removed, and Scott Brash left the arena on his own two feet.
4:16 p.m. Summary by Richard Vogel
Just before the action resumes: Here’s what Richard Vogel had to say about his ride (as a reminder: he refused to jump the wall) in the A Final:
“The refusal was a riding error,” says the rider ranked second in the world:
“Today I had a lot on my mind; I had to make it within the allotted time. Then the plan was to ride close to the wall. To be honest, for even a second he didn’t really realize that we had to jump the wall. At the last second, he thought, ‘Oh, I have to go over the ‘W’ that was to the right of the wall”—which the horse obviously couldn’t know. He didn’t want to do anything wrong at all. It’s my job to signal to him more clearly that a high wall is coming up relatively quickly right after the turn. I didn’t do that well enough. In the end, he didn’t stand a chance.”
Did he carelessly throw away the World Championship title?
“So, so frustrating! A horse in such great form definitely deserves to be further up in the individual standings as well. Thank goodness he was part of the team that won gold. He more than earned that. He jumped fantastically every single day. I actually didn’t ride my best this week.”
Did the mishap at the wall unsettle United Touch S?
Answer: No! “Even after that mix-up, he cleared the wall with ease and continued the course in a way that a horse couldn’t have done much better. It’s all the more frustrating when you have a horse that’s in such great shape, at the peak of his career, and then, as a rider, you just can’t get him to perform well enough.”
4:14 p
.
m.
Sophie Hinners offered a brief initial analysis: “Maybe I should have taken one more gallop stride before the final jump, but I’m happy—my horse jumped fantastically.”
4:06 p.m.
The course in the B Final is shorter than the one that just ended. It features 12 obstacles and 15 jumps, including one double and one triple combination. The course begins across from the grandstand at the entrance on the right, over the Turkish Airlines oxer in red and black. Then the course turns right over a steep jump. Above the Aachen Pond, another steep jump awaits. This is followed on the left-hand side by a black-and-white Mercedes-Benz oxer. At the end of the long side, the riders must now turn left. Here lies the double combination: colorful poles, airy, and featuring a “Shaka Hand” as the support pole at the entry. Across the center of the stadium, parallel to the dressage arena, comes a distance jump, followed by the Aachen Cathedral oxer, and behind that, the Sparkassen steep jump in red and white.
Then a right turn to the next obstacle, the FEI vertical jump with no fewer than four purple poles. Next comes the triple combination: airy, light yellow, and wavy planks—an oxer-oxer-vertical jump. Beyond that, the course veers slightly to the right toward the Longines oxer. After that, it turns DHL yellow. This time, the narrow jump with three poles serves as the Liverpool. The water jump is set up behind the baseline. Now all that’s left is the final jump, a Longines oxer at maximum dimensions.
3:41 p.m.
If our stats are correct—and the internet and the people who put together the start lists are probably having coffee together right now—these are the pairs that have qualified for the B final.
Steve Guerdat (SUI) and Dynamix de Belheme 0.86
Piergiorgio Bucci (ITA) and Hantano 3.57
Roberto Teran Tafur (COL) Dez’ Ooktoff 3.58
Daniel Deußer and Otello de Guldenboom 4.86
Thibaut Spits (BEL) Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z 5.6
Marcus Ehning and Coolio 5.78
Sophie Hinners and Iron Dames Singclair 5.84
Nina Mallevay (FRA) Dynastie de Beaufour 5.93
Abdel Said (BEL) and Wathnan Quaker Brimbelles Z 6.63
Harry Charles (GBR) and Holst Freda 7.17
Scott Brash (GBR) and Hello Mango 8.57
Armando Trapote (ESP) and Tornado 8.8
3:30 p.m.
Daniel Deußer and Otello de Guldenboom. Golden light on a horse with a golden name—certainly a good omen. But then he misses the third jump, the tall and wide Allianz oxer in blue and white. Deußer continues riding with focus. Thanks to the knockdown, he’s in fourth place heading into the B final.
3:27 p.m.
The next Olympic champion: Steve Guerdat and Dynamix de Belheme, in the lead alongside Daniel Deußer. The silver medalists from the Paris Olympics ride rhythmically through the course, including the five gallop jumps from the triple bar to the water jump. ZERO—with that score, the duo heads into the B final in pole position, starting at 4:20 p.m.
3:24 p
.m.
Point Break and Ben Maher for Great Britain: A horse that jumps just as much as it needs to. But before the water jump, Ben Maher has to give it a little nudge with the whip. Perhaps unsettled by this, the bay then stops before the wave jump. And just like that, the Olympic champion’s World Championship dream is over.
3:21 p.m.
To Marcus Ehning, this monster course looked like a style jump—but then the wave board came down at jump 9.
3:19 p.m.
A huge round of applause greets World Team Champion Sophe Hinners as she enters the course; at the second obstacle, Iron Dames Singclair lightly touches the bar. But she continues in a controlled manner, executing a clean takeoff before the triple combination. Triple bar and water jump with a powerful takeoff! The audience groans and gasps. Double water jump executed with confidence. And then that darn… chocolate vertical jump. Germany, starting today, no more snacking. At least nothing containing cocoa.
3:14 p.m.
Belgian rider Abdel Said and Wathnan Quaker Brimbelles Z looked set for another clear round right up to the water jump. The Belgian rider, who has Egyptian roots, had to push hard approaching the open water. The next obstacle, a wave plank, was knocked down.
Piergiorgio Bucci of Italy and Hantano had previously recorded their fifth shutout.
3:12 p.m.
The oldest horse in this individual final of the World Show Jumping Championships, Dez’Ooktoff, and Colombian rider Roberto Teran Tafur complete a clear round.
3:09 p.m.
The Spaniard Armando Trapote put in a ride on Tornado that you really don’t want to see anymore. That’s not what harmony looks like. Time and again, the small bay’s energy and jumping power saved his rider. But it wasn’t pretty to watch, and in the end, he paid the price. He knocked down the last jump.
3:05 p.m.
Unfortunately, the internet connection keeps cutting out here, so it’s possible that not all of the texts for the riders who have competed so far—including their times—are still available. Apologies if this gets anyone’s heart racing. It sure is mine.
3:03 p.m.
Briton Scott Brash and Hello Mango had a fault at the oxer between the wall and the triple combination—a jump that had not previously been a significant source of faults.
2:52 p.m. NOOOO, the wall
, Richard Vogel, and United Touch S were the favorites at the World Championships; coming out of the hairpin turn, United Touch comes to a stop in front of the purple wall. He then clears the obstacle with ease—and without any further dismounts. From the triple bar to the water jump, “Richie” really picks up the pace. The crowd murmurs. Still: six time penalties, one refusal, and the only knockdown on the German team—it wasn’t really the World Championships the two world No. 2s had hoped for.
The young Belgian rider Thibaut Spits and Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z rode what was perhaps the most commanding round so far. Right up until the end, all the poles stayed calmly where they were supposed to be.
Nina Mallevay (FRA) and Dynastie de Beaufour completed a clear round.
Irish rider Shane Sweetnam and the wiry gray horse James Kann Cruz, ranked third in the world, galloped quite smoothly around the course. Then, at the final obstacle—the “chocolate” vertical—the top bar fell. “The last one—that’s the wild card,” Ludger Beerbaum had predicted.
Stephan de Freitas Barcha and Cheveaux Primavera Imperio Egipicio, who placed fifth at the 2024 Paris Olympics, looked set for a clean round for a long time. But the dismount from the double combination proved to be their undoing just before the end.
The Final! Here’s a quick look at the key details for the A Final course, where this week’s top 25 riders will compete for a spot in the B Final. Twelve pairs will compete in the B Final, which begins around 4:20 p.m. That means we’ll know by 5:00 p.m. at the latest who will leave Aachen’s Soers as the 2026 World Show Jumping Champion. And with that, welcome to our live ticker.
The course: 13 obstacles with 6 16 jumps, which may be set up to a height of 1.65 meters. Experience has shown that the A course is the most challenging course of the entire World Championship. The course features a wall, a triple combination (6a: steep jump, two gallop jumps; 6b: steep jump, one gallop jump; 6c oxer)—all in a straight line to the exit, where the course continues on the right-hand side over a triple bar (7) and then over the open water jump. The double combination is located near the end of the course: two Liverpool oxers, 12a/b. “That’s a cliff—an Aachen specialty,” Ludger Beerbaum just told me. “Horses that are familiar with it from previous years have an advantage there.” But course designer Frank Rothenberger has built this double combination fairly, “not to the absolute maximum dimensions.”
“The wall from the turn will surely ‘come crashing down every now and then,'” says the most successful show jumper of all time. The triple combination—airy and heading toward the exit—could be a stumbling block, but it doesn’t have to be, says Beerbaum.
