Jan Tops, Co-Founder Global Champions League: “Everything counts, and the competition is very easy to follow. No one can have a bad round - you could be in the lead and then end up fifth, and also the other way around. I like it more and more, I think the concept looks very good. You cannot take any risks with which horses you bring - unless you take your best horses you have no chance to win. You can see everything is very close, it will be exciting to the end. I’m pleased for Madrid in Motion - they had a slow start to the year and missed one in Shanghai so for them to win today was a great win. Rome Gladiators are coming back - these last two or three events they’ve been doing very well. It’s incredibly tense for all the riders, they are rooting for each other. Valkenswaard United and Cascais Charms looked good to win, but because of the pressure had two or three down. The crowd here are great - they stayed to the end, even with the weather. The workers here in Chantilly are special, the course builders, the volunteers, everyone helps to make a great atmosphere here."
Gérard Manzinali, President Jumping Chantilly: “It’s a great competition. It was new here in Chantilly, the rain was not with us but everyone stayed until the end. It was all down to the last rider in the last round, and was a great competition - we hope to have it for many years here in Chantilly.”
Pedro Veniss, Madrid in Motion - Winners GCL Chantilly: “I’m very happy. My mare jumped amazing. Gonzalo had a time fault in the first round, and I said to him ‘I think if we have two clear rounds we have a big chance to win’ as it’s always difficult courses, and it worked out today. I just love the [League] - I think it’s super!"
Gonzalo Anon Suarez, Madrid in Motion - Winners GCL Chantilly: “It was amazing to win here - it’s a great place to win! Not great weather, but it was a great opportunity for us. Pedro was great, and my horse was amazing as always - we are really happy. We’ve often been in the second round this season, fighting for it, but not really lucky - but today was our day.”
Laura Renwick, Rome Gladiators - Silver Medallist GCL Chantilly: “I had a bit of bad luck in the first round after what happened with the dog who ran onto the course and my fault being taken away. But the second round I had another bit of bad luck with my martingale breaking - I didn’t get a very good distance to the combination, which was the reason I had it down. I was disappointed with myself but Marlon came back really strong in double clear and we were really close in the end.”
Marlon Zanotelli, Rome Gladiators - Silver Medallist GCL Chantilly: “Valetto is an amazing horse who often jumps double clears. Even if Laura had one down, she put me in a very good situation as she was one of the fastest in the rounds so I only had to worry about going clear inside the time to put pressure on the others. So it was good for us in the end and I’m very happy with second place."
Roosje Brouwer, Cannes Stars - Bronze Medallist GCL Chantilly: “The atmosphere here was great - it was really exciting until the end. The courses were really well built; not too much but difficult and long enough to be really precise and that made it really exciting until the last rider."
Kevin Jochems, Cannes Stars - Bronze Medallist GCL Chantilly: “It was a great course today - we had only one team who jumped clear with two time penalties. I think we had a great result, and I’m very, very happy with third place.”