The second round of the Longines World Cup Finals was claimed by Zangersheide's Christian Ahlmann. Aboard his World Cup Champion Taloubet Z ( Galoubet A x Polydor) he impressed the crowd.
For today’s round, 33 riders had lined up to compete for fame and glory – but only seven of them managed to go clear over the testing track. The American riders started where they left off yesterday; with disappointing performances from Charlie Jacobs who retired, Quentin Judge who finished on twelve faults while Jack Towell recorded sixteen faults and Katie Dinan was eliminated. After an opening full of faults, Christian Ahlmann – who had two down yesterday on Colorit (Coriano x Capitol) to finish 25th – returned strong with his faithful 16-year-old stallion Taloubet Z to set a magnificent clear round underlining his consistency through this indoor season. Two riders later Ireland’s Denis Lynch jumped a sky high round on the 13-year-old gelding All Star 5 (Argentinus x Alme) to again go clear and then it was USA’s Peter Lutz who gave his Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland something to smile about when keeping a clean sheet aboard Robin de Ponthual (Elf d'Or x Calypso d'Herbier).
In the jump-off, it was Christian Ahlmann from beginning to end. Few can match him and Taloubet Z against the clock, and today was no exception. The man who has been on fire in the Western European World Cup League this season – taking no less than three World Cup wins – was just not to match and dared to take the inside turn to the vertical placed as the fourth fence. Ahlmann’s trademark tight turns proved to be the winning formula today, and nobody was even near to catching up with his time of 36.85 seconds.
Lynch took a safe and wise option to finish as runner-up in 41.42 seconds, while Lutz saw two poles fall to the ground – eventually finishing seventh. Marco Kutscher also had two down to finish sixth, while Emerald kicked out a pole on the H&M oxer in a good time of 39.18 seconds to put Harrie Smolders in third. Ehning had to settle for fifth, also he with two fences down while Steve Guerdat was maximum unlucky to have the top pole of the first vertical down to slot into fourth place – still taking the overall lead as a very exciting round two of the Longines FEI World Cup came to and end in Gothenburg.
