Text © World of Showjumping

It was a Swiss duo on top in Saturday's CSI5* 1.55m Coupe de Genève at CHI Geneva, with world no. one Steve Guerdat taking home the win with Venard de Cerisy (Open Up Semilly x Djalisco du Guet) followed by world no. two Martin Fuchs on Silver Shine (Califax x Balou du Rouet) in the runner-up position. 

The Coupe de Genève is a very special class consisting of combinations, and on this occassion it also served as the last qualifier for Sunday's Rolex Grand Prix. Only the first fence was a single obstacle, and for the rest the course consisted of four combinations and one quadruple. The double of liverpools at fence no. 3 caused a lot of problem and some riders had to leave the arena after refusals here. Still there were 15 clears – out of the 36 in the class – and they were welcomed back for a jump-off where the combinations were changed into single fences. Against the clock, Guerdat was the fastest – beating Fuchs by nearly a second.

“My horse had a great year, so I’m very happy to end it like this with him because he deserves it," Guerdat said after his victory. "Today I had a really, really good jump-off and it is an exciting class. It is different to ride a class like this, but we have this every year here and it is actually a class I like very much. I think it is good exercise for the horses and I think they should do it more often. Not necessarily on this level, they could also do it in the 1.40/1.45 meters. It is something different and something nice for us and for the horses.”

Third place went to Marcus Ehning (GER) with A la Carte NRW (Abke x Lux), followed by Eric Lamaze (CAN) with Idalville d’Esprit (Carabas vd Wateringhoeve x Nabab de Reve) in fourth and Penelope Leprevost (FRA) with Gfe Excalibur de la Tour Vidal (Ugano Sitte x Ogano Sitte) in fifth.