Paris Panthers, winner of the Global Champions League Trofeo CaixaBank CSI5* Madrid 2023

12 May 2023

The CSI5* Longines Global Champions Tour occupied Friday's afternoon program at the 112 CSI Madrid, with the two qualifying classes for the Global Champions League.

Fifteen teams competed in the two qualifying rounds, Trofeo Caixabank, for the Global Champions League of the Longines Global Champions Tour of Madrid. Only two of them managed to finish the first class, disputed on heights of 1'55 meters, with zero points, that is, without any of the two sets of the team had penalty. They were Paris Panthers and Stockholm Hearts, who started the second scoring event with a difference of 8 points over four other teams.

In the second class, contested on heights of 1'60 meters, both the French and Swedish teams kept the same riders: Jur Vrieling and Harrie Smolders for the former and the brothers Olivier and Nicola Philippaerts for the latter. And both also employed the same plan with the horses, in this case to make a full change.

The strategy was more positive for Paris Panthers, as Jur Vrieling repeated clear with "Fiumicino van de Kalevallei" and Harrie Smolders penalized 4 points by knocking down the last obstacle with "Bingo du Parc", while Stockholm Hearts lost their chances when Olivier Philippaerts scored 10 points with "H&M Miro". His brother Nicola made clear with "Katanga v/h Dingeshof", which allowed the team from the Swedish headquarters of the GCL circuit to secure second place.

In third place was the St.Tropez Pirates team, made up of Katrin Eckermann and Simon Delestre, who finished both classes with 12 points. The same as the Madrid in Motion team, but the best time accumulated in the second class, decided that St.Tropez Pirates were the ones who climbed the podium.

Madrid in Motion made a fantastic comeback, with a brilliant double clear in the second round, in which Maikel Van der Vleuten took "Beauville Z NOP", instead of "Dywis HH", with which he had ridden in the first round. Eduardo Alvarez Aznar had a knockdown in the first trial with "D'Orient Batilly" and was perfect in the second with "Bentley de Sury". Madrid in Motion was close to the podium, but just over a second of time, left him classified in fourth place.

As for the individual classifications of each of the two tests, the first was won by the Brazilian Francisco José Mesquita riding "Catch me Marathon", while the second was won by the French Simon Delestre with "Cayman Jolly Jumper".

In the first class, the spanish Manuel Fernández Saro was classified fifth with "Jarlín de Torres", while in the second, qualifying for the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix, Eduardo Álvarez Aznar was sixth thanks to his clear with "Bentley de Jury".

After these results from the Madrid venue, the provisional Global Champions League standings are very tight, led by Paris Panthers with 88 points.

Second is Riesenbeck International with 87 points and Madrid in Motion is in third place with 86 points.

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