Text © World of Showjumping

“I am of course very happy – my first Grand Prix victory, that’s something very special,” Kim Emmen (NED) said in a press release from Longines CHI Classics Basel 2026 after winning Friday night’s CSI5*-W 1.60m Longines Grand Prix of Basel with the 13-year-old gelding Imagine N.O.P. (Cassini Gold x Lord Z) at the Swiss venue.

Six horse-and-rider combinations from the 43 at start cleared the first-round track set by the course designer duo Gérard Lachat (SUI) and Gregory Bodo (FRA) and joined the deciding jump-off. In the jump-off, only Emmen and Imagine managed to deliver another clear, taking the win as the only double clear performance of the competition with the time of 33.39.

France’s Julien Epaillard and Donatello d’Auge (Jarnac x Hello Pierville) clocked the fastest time of the competition – 32.61 – but had to settle for second with a fence down. Carrying four penalties with a time of 34.50, Pieter Devos (BEL) on Casual DV Z (Cornet Obolensky x Cicero Z) completed the podium in third. Rodrigo Giesteira Almeida (POR) and Karonia.L (Harley x G-Ramiro Z) finished fourth with eight penalties, followed by Hessel Hoekstra (NED) aboard Comthago VDL (Comme Il Faut x Carthago Z) in fifth with eleven penalties.