In a dramatic reversal of fortune lowest-ranked GCL team Hamburg Giants put in their strongest result of the season in a thrilling first round in Paris. Despite being one of the first teams to start, Sameh El Dahan and René Lopez pulled out a flawless double clear to shoot the team to the top of the leaderboard and into prime position to collect much needed ranking points.

In an edge-of-the-seat first round, Giants took pole position ahead of Montreal Diamonds and Madrid in Motion, with only three teams on double clear in today’s class. There was further drama after overall ranking leaders London Knights pairing of Ben Maher and Olivier Philippaerts picked up an unusual eight faults, with rivals Valkenswaard United finishing ahead on a team score of four after Bertram Allen and Marcus Ehning delivered for their squad. 

With the first eleven teams all within four faults of each other, Saturday's GCL Paris final is set to be a tantilising showdown, with every fault counting in the season long campaign for a qualifying place in the GC Prague Playoffs and prestigious GCL Super Cup. 

Speaking after their result, a delighted Sameh said: “We are very chuffed! We pulled out a good result. It’s still a long way, and we still have to both bring another clear to be on the podium for the first time this season. We’ll keep fighting, we’re a new team and it took us a while to understand each other and know each other’s horses, but we feel good so from now on we’ll be stronger. We have to keep our nerve and sometimes it’s hard to go last [in the order]. There’s so much team spirit, we’ll celebrate tonight and then we’ll talk with our team manager and decide what to do on Saturday.”