DOHA (Qatar): Belgian rider Niels Bruynseels warded off stiff competition from Italy’s Lorenzo De Luca and Canada’s 2008 Olympic champion Eric Lamaze to win the first round of the 2021 Global Champions Tour Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Belgian rider, who was trailing De Luca and Nuance Bleue by three-tenths of a second at the midway checkpoint, won a seven-horse jump off clocking a time of 39.93s, 0.27secs, pushing the Italian to the second place.
Lamaze on Dieu Merci, the 2008 Beijing Games Olympic champion, took the third place 40.35secs.
Bruynseels, who pickedup a purse of €123.750 for the Saturday’s effort, said he was lucky to win in Qatar.
“I have to really thank my horse. I think he is one of the best horses in the world. He made a difference for me. I was a bit lucky in the jump-off but you need luck to win. He jumped amazing last week and felt so good. I was really confident in him and he did it for me today,” said Bruynseels.
The win in Doha means Bruynseels gets an automatic entry to the LGCT Super Grand Prix in Prague in November.
“Of course I’m very happy. This is a championship at a very high level. The best riders and horses in the world are competing here. So I’m very pleased to have secured my place in the final so early in the season,” the Belgium rider said during a post-event press conference.
Bruynseels was delighted with his show in Qatar and also thanked the organizers for hosting the event in the challenging situation the world is facing on account of corona virus pandemic.
“I’m really happy with my performance in Doha, it’s been an extremely good two weeks here. I wish to thank the competition’s organizing committee for doing a great job during these special times. I’m very happy to emerge on top while competing against some of the world’s best horses and riders,” he said.
De Luca said he was delighted to be on the podium in the first round of the LGCT.
“She’s quite new at this level and it was my mistake to push her into such a high-level competition. She gave me everything she had. I’m really happy to be standing on this podium now,” De Luca said about his 10-year-old horse Nuance Bleue.
