After sustaining an injury at the end of January, Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) made a winning comeback when taking the top honours on home soil at The Dutch Masters in Saturday evening’s Audi Prize.
Riding Arera C (Indoctro x Voltaire) in this CSI5* 1,55m class with jump-off, Maikel mastered the challenges the best to take the first prize of 15 500 Euro. It was a difficult first round, and only five of the 40 starting made it to the jump-off – and the crowds had to wait all the way until rider no. 17 for the first clear to come. It was mostly the triple combination at no. 10 that fell again and again, but also the combination caused some problems. Christian Ahlmann (GER) cleared the fences early on in the class, riding Clintrexo Z (Clintissimo Z x Rex Z), but with one time fault he had to settle for sixth place.
Johnny Pals (NED) with Chat Botte du Ruisseau Z (Casall x Darco) was first to go in the jump-off, and pulled off a great clear round in 36,11 seconds. Roger Yves Bost (FRA) with Sunshine du Phare (Kannan x Domino de Moyon) was next out and had to see four faults added, in 37,18 seconds.
Then it was time for Maikel van der Vleuten, and he managed to push the time down with three seconds – crossing the finish line in 33,17 seconds.
Peder Fredricson (SWE) went even faster when speeding around the shortened course in 32,18 seconds, but when the last fence fell he went in on third position. Then it was only one to go, and it was Henrik von Eckermann (SWE) with Flotte Deerne 5 (Forsyth FRH x Cheenook) and it turned out that the last fence didn’t like the Swedes on this day as also Henrik had to see it fall – finishing in 33,54 seconds to take the fourth place.
Text and picture © World of Showjumping