Bordeaux (AFP)
Olympic champion 2012 and current world N.1, the Swiss Steve Guerdat continues to impress at five months from the Tokyo Olympics with his horse Victorio des Frotards: Saturday evening, he won for the first time the 5-star Grand Prix of the Jumping international of Bordeaux.
"Last year, I said that I will come back every year until I win the Bordeaux Jumping, so today is a very special day for me": Guerdat did not hide his emotion after winning an event that had always eluded him.
In front of a packed arena - 7,500 spectators - the Swiss won the jump-off in a barrel time of 30 sec 82 to clear the 8 obstacles without fail. He was ahead of two other riders, also the authors of a flawless one: the German Daniel Deusser, victorious in 2019 (31 sec 59 with Jasmien v. Bisschop), and the Belgian Niels Bruynseels (31 sec 71 with Ilusionata van't Meulenhof ).
Only nine riders out of the 39 starters of the Grand Prix managed to hoist themselves through the jump-off (by signing a no-fault).
"Bordeaux has always been one of my favorite contests, it's a contest that has always been denied to me, these past 10, 12 years I left very frustrated on Sunday evening. So it's like a kid's dream", underlined the Swiss, who had all the trouble in the world to hold his horse during the presentation of the medals.
Guerdat is now targeting the big show in Las Vegas (April 15-19) for the World Cup final, which he has already won 3 times (2015, 2016 and 2019). He could go down in history by becoming the first rider to successfully complete the quad.
Enough to liven up the Swiss athlete even more before the Tokyo Olympics (July 24-August 9).
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