He had to tremble for a long time: Christian Ahlmann had the tension written all over his face. He had just given everything with the eleven-year-old Oldenburg Solid Gold Z (by Stakkato Gold) in the jump-off for the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation Trophy in Riyadh and galloped to the finish without a fault after only 33.37 seconds and the tightest of turns.
After all, 15 pairs had qualified for the jump-off in the world ranking jumping competition over 1.55m. Apart from Ahlmann, they were Philipp Weishaupt and Asathir (by Diamant de Semilly), who withdrew from the competition, and Jens Baackmann with Aglaia J (by Arpeggio). Baackmann was nowhere near Ahlmann's time (35.38 seconds), he finished ninth. And nobody else was a threat to Ahlmann either. Bertram Allen was closest on Ahlmann's heels in the saddle of the only eight-year-old Empoli de Champloue (by Diamant de Semilly) and 33.82 seconds and became timekeeper. Third place went to Ahlmann's Shanghai Swans team mate, Max Kühner with EIC Cooley Jump the Q (by Pacino) ahead of Peder Fredricson with Christian K (by Namelus R).
Christian Ahlmann was delighted with the great performance of his paint-black sport partner : "It was a great jump-off today. I was early and of course that is always not so easy. I just rode as fast as I could. Solid Gold Z gave everything for me and I was the lucky winner today."
Daniel Deusser and Bingo Ste Hermelle (by Number One d'Iso) had a net roll in the triple combination and thus missed the jump-off. Marcus Ehning and Priam du Roset pushed two poles on the pads. Christian Kukuk and Nice van't Zorgvliet had an unusual 11 penalties. Things did not go according to plan at all for Hans-Dieter Dreher and Vestmalle des Cotis (by Baloubet du Rouet). After a first fault at the second obstacle and further penalties, Dreher decided not to continue the course.
