Text © World of Showjumping
The Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Western European League continued in Helsinki, Finland, on Sunday with Great Britain's Robert Whitaker and the 11-year-old stallion Vermento (Argento x Skippy) winning the second qualifier of the 2024/2025-season.
Thirteen out of the 39 horse-and-rider combinations at start cleared the first-round track set by Guilherme Jorge (BRA) and joined the deciding jump-off, where Whitaker and Vermento clocked the fastest time – taking the win in 36.84 seconds. France's Kevin Staut and Dialou Blue PS (Diarado's Boy x Chacco-Blue) followed in second after crossing the finish line in 37.11 seconds, while Switzerland's Steve Guerdat – 2024 Olympic vice-champion and current world no. two – completed the podium riding Is-Minka (Mylord Carthago x Flyinge Quite Easy) to a time of 37.56 seconds in the jump-off.
Two Brazilians followed in fourth and fifth; Yuri Mansur and QH Alfons Santo Antonio (Aromats x False Pass) clocked a time of 37.63, only 0.02 seconds ahead of Marlon Modolo Zanotelli and Grand Slam VDL (Cardento x Heartbreaker).
"Vermento has been jumping well here all weekend," Whitaker said in a press release from Helsinki International Horse Show. "He is quite a big horse, and therefore some of the turns in the jump-off were not so easy for him. However, everything worked out in our favour today. I think we made the winning difference on the purple vertical; we were very fast there."
"Is-Minka jumped great today," the third placed Guerdat said in the press release. "She is a naturally quick horse, and I am very proud of her – I could have done more in the jump-off."
With the second of the fourteen legs of the WEL 2024/2025-season now completed in Helsinki, the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ continues to Lyon, France, where the third qualifier will take place next week. The top sixteen horse-and-rider combinations at each of the fourteen qualifiers earn points, with the best eighteen from the overall standings in the WEL qualifying for the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final held in Basel, Switzerland, in April 2025.