Rolf-Göran
Bengtsson and Harrie Smolders were
the victorious dream team in
Valkenswaard tonight in a
spectacular precursor to the launch
of Global Champions League in 2016.
Riding as Team Madrid, they took the
win over Edwina Tops-Alexander and
Henk van de Pol who finished in
second place as Team Chantilly, with
Daniel Deusser and Christina
Liebherr taking third for Team
Hamburg.
It was revealed
that teams for the new League, which
will offer prize money of €7.5
million, are already lined up as
anticipation for the new show
jumping format gathers momentum.
Speaking about the new League, Jan
Tops said: “This year we already
have six teams committed for next
year. You can mix different nations
and get the best of the best
together and that is what makes it
different from the Nations Cup. It
is going to be very exciting to see
that and follow that next year."
Tonight 15 teams
of the world’s best riders added a
unique dimension to a stunning
evening of world class sport and
entertainment. The competition was
part of the Longines Global
Champions Tour of Valkenswaard and
thrilled the crowds and
international guests at the new Tops
International Arena.
Winning riders
Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and Harrie
Smolders were paired as Team Madrid
after a random draw supervised by
the FEI. Each team was named was
destinations on the Tour calendar
and after their victory flying
Dutchman Harrie declared: “It was
always a dream to ride in a team
once with him and it came out.”
The nail-biting
Team Competition had fans on the
edge of their seats as riders who
are normally rivals were paired up
and depending on each other for
success. Tactics and strategy came
into play as tension built during
the two-round competition played out
under floodlights at the
state-of-the-art facility.
Ahead of the team
competition, young singing sensation
Amira wowed the crowd in a
spectacular opening show. The
11-year-old star from The
Netherlands sang Nessum Dorma and
left spectators stunned at her
talent. Later she met rock star
Bruce Springsteen, who was in the
audience with his wife Patti and
daughter Jessica. Amira had
performed in a dazzling, high energy
show with an orchestra, gospel choir
and dancers.
As the sun made
its descent over the beautiful
Spider reception, the riders took to
the arena to test out the first
round of the special team
competition in Valkenswaard. With
their own signature soundtrack to
enter the arena, riders joined
forces to battle it out for their
share of €200,000 in prize money.
Harrie Smolders -
who was teamed with Rolf-Göran
Bengtsson - rose to the challenge of
setting the pace, and took his bay
11 year old mare Aiyetoro clear to
the cheers of the local crowd. As
the first of the team riders entered
the stunning grass arena it soon
became clear that the time allowed
of 80 seconds would be tight, and as
the riders took their chances around
the 1,55m course many picked up a
few time faults which would prove
costly to the final result.
While the
competition featured many of the
best riders in the world, it was
designed to test, as the layout
encouraged the horses forward and
the long straight lines across the
vast arena posed a technical
challenge as well as pace. Edwina
Tops-Alexander was a class act,
riding a stunning round with her
mare Heidi du Ruisseau Z putting
Team Chantilly right at the sharp
end of the grid and put the pressure
on for teammate Henk van de Pol.
However, Henk rose to the challenge
and completed a strong round with
Spartacus TN with the quickest time
so far, meaning that Team Chantilly
sailed through to the second round
and in pole position to start.
Ludger Beerbaum
and Kevin Staut were another pair to
watch as they put in a strong first
round, with Ludger picking up an
unlucky time fault, taking them
through on a score of 1. However one
fence down for Kevin, and an unusual
two for Ludger saw them finish the
competition in 5th place. In
matching jackets, the all girl team
of Luciana Diniz and Tiffany Foster
put up a strong performance,
finishing the first round on just 5
faults in total. Likewise the
combination of Daniel Deusser and
Christina Liebherr rode through on a
score of five, and with some of the
big names toppling the fences, there
was everything to play for as the
top eight went through to round two.
The second round
course was fair and again open,
drawing horse and riders into
mistakes, and encouraging a fast
pace, in particular towards the last
line. With the added pressure and
responsibility of being in the team,
the battle was on as the floodlights
lit the arena.
However it was
Harrie Smolders and Rolf-Göran
Bengtsson who came out on top,
finishing in a joint time of 160.8
and picking up just one time fault.
Edwina and Henk looked set to beat
them, but the penultimate fence
caught the Dutch rider out to the
groans of the home crowd - and
Edwina - and four faults was added
to their combined time of 155,99.
Despite being on 5 faults as they
entered round two, both Daniel
Deusser and Christina Liebherr for
Team Hamburg rode clear, picking up
just one time fault each to leave
them in the final podium position.
Jan Tops -
President of Longines Global
Champions Tour: "The whole
evening was fantastic, it was for
sure a great course again from
Uliano and great sport, only one
team clear and the ambience in the
new stadium was fantastic on the
Friday night. It was the first time
we have jumped in the evening in
front of so many people, I think it
was amazing. This is what the format
for next year for the League will
be. It will be on the Friday
evening, the team will exist of five
people and the team manager or the
team owner can decide two riders to
ride in the class. It is going to be
over 15 events, the whole year, and
will have good prize money of seven
and a half million over the Tour,
every class will be 200,000, so it’s
going to be amazing sport and I
think that the riders will prepare
their good horses also for the
Friday night.
"Strategy is very
interesting as we have 15 events and
all will be different. Sometimes we
jump in the day, sometimes in the
night, sometimes in the grass arena,
sand arena, small arenas, so it is
going to be really strategic for the
team manager, where to put which
horse where and I think that’s the
beauty of this competition."
Rolf-Goran
Bengtsson, Team Madrid, 1st place:
"The class was not so easy to
jump, there was only two double
clears and the time allowed was good
and you had to go a little bit quick
to not have some faults with the
time so you had to take some risks
to win. It was a very exciting
competition all the way up to Henk’s
very last round all the way up to
the end of it, I think it was a
fantastic evening, great to be here,
fantastic course and night."
Harrie
Smolders, Team Madrid, 1st place:
"I was very relaxed as I had a
team mate like Rolf, he’s already at
the top level for many years and
with him in the team, it was always
a dream to ride in a team once with
him and today it came out."
Edwina
Tops-Alexander, Team Chantilly, 2nd
place: "The competition was very
exciting and the crowd were very
enthusiastic. You could see people
trying to guess and calculate who
was clear and who was not. A few
people came to me afterwards and
told me how easy it was to follow.
Also for us it was the first time we
had a show with the lights here and
it created a really nice atmosphere.
We did our best and we did quite
well!"
Henk van de
Pol, Team Chantilly, 2nd place:
“It is always really nice to ride in
the same team as a great rider such
as Edwina. She did two amazing clear
rounds. I only had to be clear but I
didn’t. One thing is for sure that
we didn’t know what could happen
until the end of the competition and
this is very exciting."
Daniel
Deusser, Team Hamburg, 3rd place:
"I think after the first round
we were in the 6th position, but
again that’s the interest of the
team competition: it’s not about
yourself it’s about the team. It’s
also about what can happen and
change in the second round. The
second round was really nice but it
was quite a difficult course. There
were a lot of changes which makes it
even more interesting."
Christina
Liebherr, Team Hamburg 3rd place:
"I was really happy to be with
Daniel Deusser in the team, he is an
amazing rider. It was great fun to
ride tonight, the atmosphere was
really good. Also the arena was
beautiful with the grass and
everything, what could we ask more
as a rider? And when your horse
plays the game with you, it’s really
a good feeling."
