Riders gear up for championship climax at Longines Global Champions Tour of Doha
Thursday 12 November 2015
The Longines Global Champions Tour in Doha is well under way with Morocco’s Abdelkebir Ouaddar and his bay stallion Quickly de Kreisker stealing the show on the opening night of the championship.
The main feature class of the evening saw the top riders take centre stage under the impressive night lights of AL SHAQAB. An ecstatic Abdelkebir Ouaddar finished almost a full second ahead of second place rider Germany’s Hans-Dieter Dreher and his grey gelding Cool And Easy, with Ireland’s Bertram Allen and Molly Malone clinching the third place spot. Abdelkebir went into the jump off in the 1.50m CSI5* competition fired up and his skilful round forced other riders to make mistakes as they tried and failed to beat his time of 37.97 seconds.
Tomorrow will see the CSI5* class kick off at 18:30 local time, with full coverage available via the GCT TV Live streaming platform.
The final dramatic Grand Prix of the season will take place on Saturday afternoon at 17:15 local time. World Number 1 and Ranking leader Scott Brash (GBR) is in the top spot and has potential to make history by taking his third consecutive title - a record that is yet to be broken within the Longines Global Champions Tour. Hot on his heels is Luciana Diniz (POR), just two points away from Scott’s current total, and two-time Olympic Silver medallist Rolf-Göran Bengtsson (SWE); both of whom will be hoping to clinch the crown from the British rider’s grasp in what’s set to be one of the most exciting sporting finals showjumping has seen.
The Grand Prix is set to be one of the most exciting climaxes to any season in the history of the series. The critical points battle that will unfold at the top of the ranking leader board will deliver a thrilling finale with three leading riders in contention for the overall crown.