St Tropez leading the League, Pieter Devos Apart
Press release | Showjumping – The team wears the colors of a French town, St Tropez Pirates, and gathers two French-speaking: France Simon Delestre and Belgium Jérôme Guéry. The pair leads the first round of the Parisian leg of the Global Champions League, major class of this Friday afternoon at the Champ de Mars, which history is not over as it will end tomorrow. So take a note for tomorrow, 4:15pm, to discover the outcome.
After an excellent try out in 2016, the League has finally found it’s right fit: a two rounds class, over two days, with 18 teams present in Paris. Teams names were given according to the different legs of the Longines Global Champions Tour and the format allow to play on tactics, to increase competitiveness, and to give their chance to young rider, under 25, competing alongside legends of this sport.
Therefore, today, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, we could watch the Vienna Eagles, Berlin Lions or even the Moscow Bears fight for the lead. But, for the third time this season, the St Tropez Pirates have took over the lead at the end of the day. Simon Delestre (Chesall Zimequest) and Jérôme Guery (Grand Cru van de Rozenberg) have been the only two riders to sign two perfect clear-rounds in the same team to lead on the Hamburg Diamonds, gathering USA Audrey Coulter and Netherlands Harrie Smolders.
The class wasn’t finished yet though, as it was also the support of an individual competition… herself qualifying for the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of tomorrow night (7:45pm). All clear-rounds of the League, and the ones in individual, would face for a jump-off. A battle won by the pillar of the Monaco Aces, Belgium Pieter Devos (Apart), who clearly dominated Italy Alberto Zorzi (Cinsey) by two seconds and a half! A huge difference of time! A jump-off during which team leaders where quite discreet: Simon Delestre finishs with 8points and ranks 6, over 6 jump-off; and Jérôme Guéry preferred to preserve his horse for the second round of the League tomorrow. The idea is to do everything possible to finally take the win in this class they dominated three times since the beginning of the season without once getting the win! Anyway, this Global Champions League would present a lot of surprises tomorrow.
This first day of sport ended with an attempt of a high jump record to which only 12 riders tried their luck. Five faulted at 1,95m and rode a second time to determine a winner. At the end, only two riders succeeded: Julien Epaillard and Danielle Goldstein.
Tomorrow, the public will be lucky to see all these champions in the three major classes of the day: the Prix Renault Mobility (12h15), the second round of the Global Champions League (4:15pm) and the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix (7:45pm).
Source: Press release
