Under the awe-inspiring architecture of the Al Shaqab arena in Doha, the battle for the CSI5* Grand Prix of the Doha Tour reached a thrilling climax. It was the French rider Cyrine Cherif who left the competition in her wake. Partnered with her faithful mount Triple T Calamando Blue (Calmando x Chacco-Blue), she delivered a near-perfect performance.
"There were a lot of great riders today. It was still a tough competition. All of the riders were good and had a chance to win. You could see that some also had the chance to win, but they had an unlucky rail or a time fault. So it was competitive," Cherif remarked following her victory.
The evening's strongest challenge came from the home nation. Qatari rider Faleh Suwead Al Ajami brought the crowd to their feet with the lightning-fast BWP gelding Wathnan Quatro (Jon Pleasure van de Mispelaere, breeders: Kris and Sonja van Uytvanck). Al Ajami was actually faster than Cherif in the jump-off (40.99 seconds), but a costly jumping penalty relegated him to second place.
Third place on the podium went to America's Kristen Vanderveen. Aboard Bull Run's Jireh (Uriko, breeder: Timm Peters), she remained clear over the fences in both the second round and the jump-off, but a time penalty from the very first round continued to haunt her. This resulted in a total of 1 penalty point, placing her just ahead of Brazil's Santiago Lambre, who finished fourth with 2 time penalties on Zeusz (Cartogran). Lambre was followed by Gerfried Puck and the BWP stallion Equitron Naxcel V (Balou du Rouet)—a combination that notably secured a major win in Doha just this past Saturday!
