A heavyweight line up of the stars of show jumping will head to Hamburg this week as the Championship temperature hots up for the sixth leg of the Longines Global Champions Tour 2022 circuit.
Leading the pack will be last year’s LGCT Grand Prix of Hamburg winner Harrie Smolders who will compete in the three day festival of show jumping with his top horses. Current LGCT Championship leader Pieter Devos will compete in Hamburg looking to extend his lead.
Five time Olympic medallist and home hero Ludger Beerbaum will also be back and looking for another strong result at his local show ground. The top German rider has won the LGCT Grand Prix here before and already won two out of the 5 LGCT Grand Prix this season! Can he make it a third on home soil?
There will be plenty of home heroes for fans to support, with top German riders also including Marcus Ehning, Christian Ahlmann, Janne-Freiderike Meyer-Zimmermann, Philipp Weishaupt, Daniel Deusser, Maurice Tebbel, Hans-Dieter Dreher and U25 star Philipp Schulze Topphoff, who will all be looking to pull out a stellar performance in the LGCT Grand Prix to dazzle the knowledgeable crowds.
They will face stiff competition from names such as Max Kühner, Niels Bruynseels, Olivier Philippaerts, Harry Charles, John Whitaker, Ioli Mytilineou, Shane Breen, Michael Duffy, Darragh Kenny, Geir Gulliksen and Michael Pender all lining up for a chance to earn a place in the all-important LGCT Super Grand Prix at the GC Prague Playoffs at the end of the season. The current qualifiers for the Longines Global Champions Super Grand Prix include Ludger Beerbaum, Katrin Eckermann, Denis Lynch, Sanne Thijssen and last weekend's LGCT St Tropez winner Malin Bayard-Johnsson - with ten more places available in the ultimate showdown in show jumping.
Hamburg, Germany’s biggest port city and its ‘gateway to the world’ will host another stunning round of action on the Longines Global Champions Tour from 25 - 29 May and young talent Jack Whitaker will be back in action for the first time since his freak accident where he was kicked by a horse that kept him out of the ring for a few weeks.
At the Derby-Park Klein Flottbeck, families can enjoy picnics in the countryside setting where the German Jumping and Dressage Derby has been held for decades. Or visitors can take a trip into the city to enjoy a whole host of activities from sight-seeing to fine dining, music to museums.
With the level of competition and excitement building year on year, the sixth stop on the LGCT season will be a thriller.