Adeline Hecart wins Al Shira’aa Longines Grand Prix

Riding Pasha du Gue, 21-year-old Hecart delivered one of the three double clear rounds with the fastest time in the jump-off to clinch victory.

Saudi Arabia’s Khaled Abdulrahman Almobty finished as runner-up on Zypern 4, with Bahrain’s Khalid Hilal Al Khatri taking third place with Awal BDF.

A total of 32 horse and rider combinations came forward for this four-star graded feature class of the Al Shira’aa International Horse Show, of which 13 produced clear rounds in the first round to progress to the jump-off decider.
In a tense battle to conclude the 1.50-1.60 metre competition, Hecart then went clear second time round in the fastest time, stopping the clock at 52.60 seconds.

Almobty had to settle for second on Zypern 4 as they also went clear but in a slower time of 54.31 seconds, with Al Khatri completing the podium with Awal BDF as their clear round came in at 56.96 seconds.

Home rider Abdullah Al Marri had the fastest time in the jump-off, but saw a rail down and had to settle for fourth place.
In the lead-up to the Longines Grand Prix, Ireland’s Michael Pender and Germany’s David Will secured victories in the two CSI4 star Longines Grand Prix qualifiers on Wednesday and Thursday.

Pender had already tasted victory at the recent CSI3 star World Cup event at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club and the 17 year-old took top spot on the podium again by riding HHS Hercules to victory in the 1.45 metre qualifier for Saturday’s Grand Prix. Portugal’s João Marquilhas followed in runner-up position aboard W Diva Rosa with only 0.66 seconds separating the two in the jump-off, with Hecart finishing third on Question d’Orval.

On Thursday, it was Will’s turn to enjoy victory less than a week after winning the Grand Prix at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.

This time it was in the 1.50 metre Mother of Nations Grand Prix qualifier in which Will had again partnered up with the veteran Mic Mac du Tillard, the two were by far the fastest of the class with a clear round time of 35.34 seconds in the jump-off.

Russia’s Vladimir Tuganov was second on Sinfonie 168 in 39.88 seconds whilst third place went to France’s Frederic David on Equador van’t Roosakker.