It was a very happy Pius Schwizer that won the 1,55 m Mercedes-Benz Championat in Hamburg riding the 10 year old Amira (Air Jordan Z x Chellano Z). The Swiss rider stole the victory ahead of six home riders, with Christian Ahlmann and Epleaser van't Heike (For Pleasure x Nabab de Reve) ending second.

43 rider and horse combination took part in the class and as many as 17 qualified for the jump-off - a jump-off that turned out to be really fast. Ten riders repeated the clear round in the jump-off and Pius, who started as number four, put some real pressure on the rest of the field with his 41,63 seconds. The riders to come sure tried to be faster, but without succeeding.

Ludger Beerbaum ended third with 42,42 seconds on Chaman (Baloubet du Rouet x I Love You) while Mario Stevens - with in-form Brooklyn (Balou du Rouet x Arpeggio) - ended fourth. They were followed by Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum with Atlanta (For Pleasure x Achill-Libero H), Hans-Dieter Dreher with Colore (Contender x Lord), Marco Kutscher with Liberty Son (Clooney x Lord Z), Carlos Lopez with Prince de la Mare (Bequin de Moens x Socrate de Chivre), Yuri Mansur Guerios with Cornetto K (Cornet Obolensky x Calido) and Patrick Stühlmeyer with Lacan (Lando x Contender).

Pius was very pleased with his ride Amira and said this after the class: "Amira hasn't been with me for that long and she hasn't done so many big classes. But she is a really good horse and she proved in Antwerp that she can jump big and today she also showed that she is fast, which I
haven't tested before. I had so many riders behind me so I thought I better go for it and she really worked with me."

Christian was also happy: "I'm very satisfied with Epleaser. We haven't done that many shows on this level and certainly not in this speed. Of course I would have liked to win, and I could think about where I could have been faster and saved some time, but I won't. Instead I'm going to be very happy with my horse and with my round. "

Ludger on the other hand had a different point of view: "I'm really not happy with my jump-off. That has nothing to do with Chaman, because he jumped great. But throughout the course I didn't find a rhythm. It started already between the first two fences and went all the way to the last fence. If I would have got the round right I might have been faster than Pius, so I can defiantly not be happy with this jump-off where I had the chance and didn't take it. Chaman will go home today to do some breeding and I will ride Chiara on Saturday and hopefully I will get a better round then."