| Seventh place in Rome for Team Riesenbeck International
Cannes Stars women's team wins GCL stage in Rome
Doha Falcons and Paris Panthers in second and third place – Riesenbeck International seventh
The 14th stage of the two global show jumping series, the Longines Global Champions Tour and Global Champions League, is taking place this weekend at a historic location: the Circus Maximus in the heart of the Italian capital Rome. On Friday afternoon, at the site where gladiators fought each other in chariot races in ancient times, the focus was on collecting important points in the Global Champions League team competition in order to win a large prize money at the end.
Sophie Hinners and Katrin Eckermann from the Cannes Stars women's team were the most successful. They were the only team to remain faultless and thus celebrated their second victory of the season. The second and third place finishers on the podium were almost more delighted. Neither the Doha Falcons nor the Paris Panthers were necessarily among the favorites, so they could hardly believe their luck.
With Maximilian Weishaupt, who brought his 13-year-old stallion Zuccero HV to the holy city, and Olympic champion Christian Kukuk, who saddled the ten-year-old stallion Chageorge, Team Riesenbeck started the first round, a 1.55-meter jumping competition. Both experienced riders showed confident, consistent, and flawless rounds with their horses and placed fifth before the second round. With a total of eight out of 17 teams delivering double clear rounds, this created a new dynamic. It had to be flawless and fast to even get a podium place.
Course designer Uliano Vezzani made the course more challenging in the decisive second round, a 1.60-meter jump. There were a few knockdowns and time faults. Team Riesenbeck International had no reason to make any changes to their riders or horses. However, the first victory of the season is still to come: Neither Maximilian Weishaupt (one knockdown) nor Christian Kukuk (two knockdowns) managed to add to the points tally with a good result. In the end, the Riesenbeck team “only” managed seventh place.
Team manager Ludger Beerbaum said: “After the first round, I really thought we had a great chance to take a step forward today, and from my point of view, there was no reason to change the team. It wasn't our second round with three knockdowns, and at least Emanuele Camilli won the individual competition, which was a great achievement. Nevertheless, the riders did a good job. We haven't fallen further behind fourth place!”
The action continues this coming weekend with the 15th stage of the series in Rabat (Morocco).
Interim standings after 14 of 16 stages:
https://results.hippodata.de/2025/2504/docs/gcl_ranking_2025_after_rome.pdf
