The 2024/2025-season of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Western European League got underway in Oslo, Norway, this weekend with its first qualifier, where Belgium's Gregory Wathelet and the 13-year-old stallion Bond Jamesbond de Hay (Diamant de Semilly x Kannan) took the top honours in Sunday's CSI5*-W 1.60m Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ presented by Agria after posting the only double clear of the competition at the Unity Arena in the Norwegian capital. 

Only four horse-and-rider combinations from the 40 pairs at start – Wathelet and Bond Jamesbond de Hay, Edouard Schmitz (SUI) on Gamin van't Naastveldhof (Chacco Chacco x Toulon), Julien Gonin (FRA) and Valou du Lys (Calvaro F.C. x Galoubet A) and Mans Thijssen (NED) aboard Hello (Ambler Gambler x Nabab de Reve) – cleared the first-round track set by Sweden's Peter Lundström.

A fence down in the deciding jump-off in a time of 43.10 left Schmitz and Gamin van't Naastveldhof to the runner-up spot, while Wathelet and Bond Jamesbond de Hay – a pair that won the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ of Lyon last year – took the top honours as the only combination to leave all the fences intact. Gonin and Valou du Lys placed third, followed by Thijssen on Hello in fourth. With a single time penalty in the first round, Yuri Mansur (BRA) and GH Alfons Santo Antonio (Aromats x False Pass) finished fifth. 

"It didn’t seem that difficult when I walked the course, but there were more faults than I had
expected," Wathelet said about the first-round track in a press release from Agria Oslo Horse Show. "I didn’t know how fast Thijssen’s horse was, so I set a high pace. The gamble paid off."

"I was very pleased with how my horse jumped," the second placed Schmitz said in the press release. "It’s our first time here in Norway, and we’ll leave with great memories." 

With the first of the fourteen legs of the WEL 2024/2025-season now completed in Oslo, the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ continues to Helsinki, Finland, where the secod qualifier will take place next week. The top sixteen horse-and-rider combinations at each of the fourteen qualifiers earn points, with the top eighteen from the overall standings in the WEL qualifying for the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final held in Basel, Switzerland, in April 2025. 

The 2024-edition of Agria Oslo Horse Show marked the end of an era as the traditional Norwegian event moves to a new venue at X Meeting Point north of Oslo for next year's edition.