Global Champions Tour

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Global Champions Tour
Global Champions Tour logo

Current season Global Champions Tour 2020
sport Show jumping
abbreviation GCT
League foundation 2006
Title holder United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ben Maher (2019)
Record champions AustraliaAustralia Edwina Tops-Alexander (2009, 2011, 2012, 2018)
TV partner Eurosport
Website www.globalchampionstour.com

The Global Champions Tour - GCT for short - is an international show jumping tournament series that has been held since 2006 . All tournaments in the series have been advertised as CSI 5 *, the most difficult tournament category in show jumping, since 2007 .

Development of the series

Award ceremony of the stage at the Vienna Masters 2013

The Global Champions Tour was first held in 2006. The initiator of the series is the former Dutch show jumper and team Olympic champion from 1992, Jan Tops . The patroness of the series was the Greek show jumper and heir to the fortune of Aristotle Onassis , Athina Onassis , until 2012 .

In 2006, the special stages of the series were held as part of the Grand Prix of a total of six tournaments in the CSI 4 * and CSI 5 * categories. The winner of a competition on the Global Champions Tour received prize money of € 50,000.

In 2007, the European television broadcaster Eurosport was added to the previous main sponsors, CN / CN Worldwide and Rolex . He is the official media partner of the Global Champions Tour and is also responsible for the international assignment of rights to the tour. Since 2007, all tournaments in which special stages of the Global Champions Tour were held have been held as CSI 5 *, the prize money has also been increased to € 300,000 per special stage (of which € 100,000 for the winner). At the same time, all special stages were postponed to Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening, so that they can be broadcast in Central Europe in the Eurosport program during prime time - live or with a delay.

As of 2008, the Global Champions Tour is an official FEI recognized tournament series, but will continue to be organized by Jan Tops. In 2008 and 2009, an official Global Champions Tour final was held that was endowed with € 900,000 (of which € 300,000 for the winner). To take part in this, the riders had to qualify via the overall ranking.

As a result of the increasingly emerging financial and economic crisis , it was decided to change the distribution of the prize money in the 2009 season. The organizers of the tournaments received support of € 15,000 each, the remaining endowment of € 285,000 per evaluation test will be distributed to the participants as prize money (€ 95,000 of which for the winner). An exception to this was the Estoril valuation test, which with € 400,000 in prize money (€ 136,000 for the winner) took the title of the highest endowed jumping competition in Europe from the Aachen Grand Prix .

In 2010, the watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre took the place of CN and Rolex as the series' main sponsor, for which a three-year contract was signed. Starting in 2013, Longines was won as the new main sponsor.

In the summer of 2014, McCourt Sports Limited, a subsidiary of the US financial company McCourt Global, acquired half of the shares in the Global Champions Tour. McCourt Global was owned by the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team until 2012 . In January 2020, these shares were taken over by Tennor Holding .

With the 2019 season, the final stage of the Global Champions Tour was awarded to New York City. Doha, the end of the season for many years, switched to an appointment at the beginning of the season. With 19 stations plus the Super Grand Prix in Prague, the tournament series reached a new record number of stages.

Stations on the Global Champions Tour

A station of the Global Champions Tour takes place under floodlights on the banks of Port Hercule in Monaco
The marble stadium on the Foro Italico in Rome is the venue for a Global Champions Tour stage

The current stations of the Global Champions Tour are (as of February 2019):

Former locations of the Global Champions Tour are:

The special stages

The following may take part in the special stages of the Global Champions Tour:

  • the best 30 riders in the world rankings. If you do not participate, you can move up - up to a maximum of 150 in the world ranking list
  • the holders of wild cards: these are awarded by the organizers of the Global Champions Tour, the organizers of the special tests or national coaches and the FEI.

Up until the 2016 season, the evaluation test was held as a jumping competition with two rounds and a jump-off . Both laps had a different course. The second round was made by the best 18 riders of the first round or, if there are more, all rides without errors. The penalty points are taken from the first round, the time of the second round is included in the final result.

With the recognition of the Global Champions League as an international tournament series by the FEI for the 2017 season, the mode of the Global Champions Tour also changed significantly: the previous first round of the Global Champions Tour special test is now held as an independent test. This test serves on the one hand as the second round of the team classification of the Global Champions League, on the other hand it is a qualification test for the subsequent Global Champions Tour evaluation test.

The Global Champions Tour special test will be shortened to a jumping competition with one jump-off (the prize money remained unchanged). In this test, the best 25 riders from the qualification test are allowed to start, all participants start again without penalty points. It is possible to compete with the same or a different horse than in the qualification test.

Scoring

The overall ranking is determined on the basis of the placements of the riders, regardless of the horse , in the individual evaluation tests.

Up until 2009, points were awarded as follows:

space 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 17th 18th
Points 20th 18th 16 15th 14th 13 12 11 10 9 8th 7th 6th 5 4th 3 2 1

At the beginning of the 2010 season, the point allocation was changed and will take place until 2016 as follows (from the 2012 season only riders up to 18th rank received evaluation points):

space 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23 24 25th
Points 40 37 35 33 32 31 30th 29 28 27 26th 25th 24 23 22nd 21st 20th 19th 12 11 10 9 8th 7th 6th

With the change in the regulations for the 2017 season, 25 riders will receive rating points again:

space 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23 24 25th
Points 40 37 35 33 32 31 30th 29 28 27 26th 25th 24 23 22nd 21st 20th 19th 18th 17th 16 15th 14th 13 12

Overall and final winners

Below is the list of the final results of the overall ranking of the Global Champions Tour. In 2006 and 2007 the winners of the Global Champions Tour were determined on the basis of the overall ranking; in 2008 and 2009 it was used to determine the starting field at the series finals. Since 2010, the winner of the Global Champions Tour has been determined based on the overall ranking. The 18 best placed riders in the final overall ranking have been awarded additional prize money totaling € 1,000,000 since 2010.

year Overall winner
2006 BelgiumBelgium Ludo Philippaerts - Winner of the Global Champions Tour 2006
2007 NetherlandsNetherlands Albert Zoer - Winner of the Global Champions Tour 2007
2008 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Nick Skelton
2009 AustraliaAustralia Edwina Alexander
2010 GermanyGermany Marcus Ehning (Bonus: € 300,000) - Winner of GCT 2010
2011 AustraliaAustralia Edwina Tops-Alexander (Bonus: € 300,000) - Winner of the GCT 2011
2012 AustraliaAustralia Edwina Tops-Alexander (Bonus: € 294,500) - Winner of the GCT 2012
2013 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Scott Brash (Bonus: € 294,500) - Winner of GCT 2013
2014 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Scott Brash (Bonus: € 294,500) - Winner of the GCT 2014
2015 PortugalPortugal Luciana Diniz (bonus: € 294,500) - winner of the GCT 2015
2016 SwedenSweden Rolf-Göran Bengtsson (bonus: € 294,500) - Winner of the GCT 2016
2017 NetherlandsNetherlands Harrie Smolders (Bonus: € 294,500) - GCT 2017 winner
2018 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ben Maher (Bonus: € 294,500) - Winner of the GCT 2018
2019 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ben Maher (Bonus: € 294,500) - Winner of GCT 2019
2020

Since 2008, when the Global Champions Tour was recognized as the official series of the FEI, there has been a series finale (until 2009) . The series finals were held according to regulations that differed from the special tests: On Thursday, a first test of the 25 qualified took place, which was held as a jumping competition with one round based on mistakes and time . From this, the best 18 riders qualified for the main test of the finals on Saturday, which was held as a jumping competition with jump-off . The first examination was endowed with € 50,000, the main examination was endowed with € 900,000 (of which € 300,000 for the winner).

The qualification for the final took place via the aforementioned overall ranking (the best 25 riders qualify for the final, advancement is possible). The following rider-horse pairs have so far emerged as the final winners of the Global Champions Tour:

year Venue of the final Winner of the GCT final Runner-up in the GCT final Third place in the GCT final
2008 BrazilBrazil São Paulo IrelandIreland Jessica Kürten with Libertina
winner of the Global Champions Tour 2008
GermanyGermany Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum with Shutterfly GermanyGermany Ludger Beerbaum with All Inclusive NRW
2009 QatarQatar Doha FranceFrance Michel Robert with Kellemoi de Pepita
Winner of the Global Champions Tour 2009
BelgiumBelgium Jos Lansink with Valentina van't Heike BrazilBrazil Álvaro Affonso de Miranda Neto with Picolien Zeldenrust

A final tournament has been held again since 2018. The so-called Global Champions Tour Super Grand Prix is ​​a test that does not count towards the overall ranking. Only the winners of each special stage of the GCT season are qualified. If a rider has already qualified at an earlier GCT stage, the best placed rider who is not yet eligible to compete in the Super Grand Prix moves up.

The venue for the Super Grand Prix is Prague ; unlike the other GCT tournaments, the final tournament is held as an indoor riding tournament. The prize money for the Super Grand Prix is ​​1.25 million euros, of which 300,000 euros go to the winner.

year Overall winner
Super Grand Prix 2018 AustraliaAustralia Edwina Tops-Alexander with California
Super Grand Prix 2019 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ben Maher with Explosion W

criticism

Overlaps with Nations Cup tournaments

In order to prevent the Global Champions Tour from overpowering other events in show jumping, especially the Nations Cup , the European Equestrian Federation (umbrella organization of European equestrian federations) demanded a rule change at the end of 2011. In the future, the most important nations' prizes should no longer coincide with other CSI 5 * tournaments, in particular with GCT tournaments.

However, this regulation could not be implemented. In 2018 there were six overlaps with Nations Cup tournaments of the FEI Nations Cup.

The International Jumping Rider Club (IJRC; representation of the interests of show jumpers who are among the top 100 in the world rankings) took up this topic and spoke with a two-thirds majority that only half of the GCT stations should be included in the overall ranking . The FEI agreed with the IJRC, so only half of the GCT exams have counted towards the overall standings since 2012.

Even if the GCT in connection with its sister series Global Champions League has a high level of acceptance among the top riders, the criticism remained. When asked about the further growth to 20 stations, the German national coach Otto Becker said in February 2019: "I find 20 stations too many, 15 as before would be better in my opinion ... Almost every Nations Cup tournament is at the same time as a global tournament ... What What makes it complex and demanding are the long journeys. "

Sale of wild card starting places

In 2012 it was announced to the public for the first time by a rider that he should have paid 30,000 euros for a wild card starting place.

It is now known that the organizers of the Global Champions Tour buy the wild card contingent as much as possible from the organizers of the individual tournaments in order to sell these starting places as “pay cards”. In a starting field of 50 riders, this can mean up to 15 starting places (30%). Prices are flexible, the law of supply and demand applies.

Web links

Commons : Global Champions Tour  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Article “Global Champions Tour 2007 starts in Wellington, Florida”, accessed on October 17, 2009
  2. a b Media Guide for the Global Champions Tour 2009, including the results of the individual qualification tests since 2006 (English; PDF; 207 kB)
  3. Message "Media partner for Global Champions Tour 2007", accessed on October 17, 2009
  4. a b Result of the Global Champions Tour Finals 2008
  5. Message "Global Champions Tour: Prize money remains unchanged" on horseweb.de, accessed on November 2, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.horseweb.de  
  6. Result of the Grand Prix of Estoril 2009 ( Memento of the original from July 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / events.scg-nl.nl
  7. News about the special stage in Estoril on globalchampionstour.com (English)
  8. The Global Champions Tour becomes Longines Global Champions Tour ( Memento from March 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  9. US participation in the Global Champions Tour: From baseball to horses , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , June 24, 2014
  10. McCourt Global Acquire 50% Interest in the Global Champions Tour , press release, June 23, 2014 (English)
  11. Longines Global Champions Tour and Global Champions League New Partnership Announcement , press release, January 13, 2020
  12. Article about the Global Champions Tour 2009 on reitsport-nachrichten.de, accessed on October 17, 2009 ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.reitsport-nachrichten.de
  13. Rules for the 2017 Longines Global Champions Tour ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / inside.fei.org
  14. Press release on the last station of the GCT season 2006, accessed on October 17, 2009 (English)
  15. Final result of the overall ranking of the GCT 2008 - before the GCT final (PDF; 26 kB)
  16. Final result of the overall ranking of the GCT 2009 - before the GCT finals ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / events.scg-nl.nl
  17. Final result of the overall evaluation of the GCT 2010
  18. Marcus Ehning the GCT Champion 2010 ( Memento from September 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  19. Dispute over the date of the Nations Cup and major tournaments ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), sportal.de, November 9, 2011
  20. ^ Voting result , International Jumping Rider Club
  21. ^ Jan Tops and Global Tour initially slowed down , Dieter Ludwig, March 14, 2012
  22. ↑ National coach criticizes Global Champions Tour , sport.de, February 27, 2019
  23. Young European champions should pay 30,000 euros for a Global Start permit. September 14, 2012, accessed May 4, 2013 .
  24. Pay first, then ride. May 17, 2015, accessed November 24, 2015 .