Samorin: Christian Ahlmann second in Grand Prix

Samorin (fn-press).
The international show jumping series Global Champions Tour makes two guest appearances in Slovakia. Since some of the 15 tour stages were cancelled due to corona, the equestrian center in Samorin closes the gap in the calendar with two events. In the Grand Prix of the first weekend, Christian Ahlmann took second place with the stallion Dominator Z behind the US rider Spencer Smith.

The Italian rider Uliano Vezzani was once again responsible for the course of the 300,000 Euro Grand Prix, which is a competition of the Global Champions Tour. He designs the courses at most of the Global Tour tournaments and also managed to sort out the field in the main jumping competition in Samorin. Of the 29 participants, ten pairs mastered the round without faults and qualified for the jump-off, among them the three Germans Christian Ahlmann (Marl), Daniel Deußer (Rijmenam/Belgium) and Philipp Weishaupt (Riesenbeck).

There were only two hundredths of a second between first and second place. The US rider Spencer Smith rode the French gelding Theodore Manciais across the finish line without any faults. The 25-year-old, who trains with the Canadian rider Eric Lamaze, took 39.57 seconds and was thus a blink of an eye faster than Christian Ahlmann. His stallion Dominator Z, son of Diamant de Semilly, was also clear (39.59). These two hundredths of a second were expensive, however, because the winner was able to enjoy prize money of 99,000 euros, with 60,000 for second place.

The third fastest ride was achieved by the Dutch rider Jur Vrieling with the Belgian gelding Fiumicino van de Kalvallei (0/40). Daniel Deußer held his ground in seventh place. He rode the ten-year-old French stallion Bingo Ste Hermelle. Deußer rode the fastest round with a time of 39.34 seconds, but the pole fell at one of the obstacles (4/39.34). Philipp Weishaupt scored two faults with Lacasino. The Oldenburg son of Lordanos and his rider finished the Grand Prix in tenth place (8/43.82). hen