Global Champions Tour 2016

Global Champions Tour logo

The Global Champions Tour 2016 was the eleventh season of the Global Champions Tour , an international tournament series. It is considered one of the most important series in show jumping . The 2016 Global Champions League , the first season of the Global Champions League team competition, was held parallel to the Global Champions Tour .

Longines was once again the name sponsor and timepiece of the Global Champions Tour (GCT), which is why it was named Longines Global Champions Tour 2016 . The organizer was Jan Tops , and McCourt Sports Limited, a subsidiary of the US financial company McCourt Global, has held half of the shares in the series since summer 2014.

The Global Champions Tour (GCT) is an FEI recognized tournament series. On the other hand, the Global Champions League (GCL) is not approved or supported by the FEI and was therefore not a competition according to FEI regulations. Therefore, their own officials (judges, stewards, course builders, etc.) were on duty for their tests.

Course of the tournament series

Global Champions Tour

After another GCT tournament has been held in the United States since 2015, another American stage was added in the 2016 season, the venue was Mexico City. Furthermore, the tournaments in which the Global Champions Tour 2016 took place were mostly held in Europe (eleven stations). In addition, a stage was held in China and the season finale was again held in Qatar on the Arabian Peninsula. A tournament in London was no longer part of the Global Champions Tour in 2016.

In the 2016 season, the GCT special stages were held between April 7th and November 5th, 2016. The number of stages had increased to 15 by one station compared to the previous season. All tournaments were  advertised as CSI 5 *, the highest category in show jumping.

The special stages of the Global Champions Tour took place on Saturday afternoons or evenings. They were advertised as a jumping competition with two different rounds and jump-offs , the height of the obstacles was up to 1.60 meters. The second round of the GCT tests was achieved by the best 18 riders of the first round or all riders with faultless rides, if there were more than 18. In the jump-off, the participants who were tied for first place after the two rounds went into the jump-off (usually with no mistakes in both rounds). The exams were each endowed with at least € 285,000 .

Global Champions League

The prize money for the Global Champions League tests was 200,000 euros each. These competitions were organized as part of the Global Champions Tour tournaments, mostly on Sunday afternoons or Friday afternoons. The Global Champions League is a team competition in which two riders from a team (usually five riders) compete as one team. The teams (with the exception of one Qatari team) were put together independently of their nationalities, the nationalities took a back seat and were not included in the results lists.

12 teams started in the special stages of the GCL season. These included the following tabs:

• Antwerp Diamonds: Harrie Smolders , Marc Houtzager , Audrey Coulter , Katharina Offel , Jos Verlooy     
• Cannes Stars: Marco Kutscher , Roger-Yves Bost , Roosje Brouwer, Kevin Jochems  
• Cascais Charms: Pilar Cordon , Andreas Kreuzer , Quentin Judge , David Will , Philip Houston    
• Doha Fursan Qatar: Ali bin Chalid Al Thani , Bassem Hassan Mohammed , Ali Al Rumaihi , Faleh Suwead Al Ajami , Hamad Ali Mohamed Al Attiyah     
• Madrid in Motion: Doda de Miranda (replaced by Alberto Zorzi later this season ), Athina Onassis de Miranda , Pedro Veniss , Marta Ortega Perez , Gonzalo Añón Suarez     
• Miami Glory: Scott Brash , Kent Farrington , Georgina Bloomberg , Kimberly Prince , Jessica Mendoza     
• Monaco Aces: Maikel van der Vleuten , Leopold van Asten , Schuyler Riley , Daniel Bluman , Lisa Nooren     
• Paris Jets: Rolf-Göran Bengtsson , Gregory Wathelet , Olivier Philippaerts , Nicola Philippaerts , Titouan Schumacher    
• Rome Gladiators: Laura Kraut , Laura Renwick , Marlon Módolo Zanotelli , Jack Towell , Emma Heise    
• Shanghai Swans: Edwina Tops-Alexander , Ben Maher , Janne Friederike Meyer , Jessica Springsteen , Alexandra Thornton     
• Valkenswaard United: Bertram Allen , John Whitaker , Eduardo Menezes , Emily Moffitt   
• Vienna Eagles: Lauren Hough , Rodrigo Pessoa , Paris Sellon , Danielle Goldstein , Emanuel Andrade     

media

Eurosport was media partner of the Global Champions Tour for another year. Most of the GCT exams were transferred to Eurosport 1 . The transmissions, which included the second round and the jump-off, took place live or with a time delay. The GCT and GCL-stages and many other tests of GCT tournaments were on the website of the Global Champions Tour via live stream transmitted.

The exams

1st exam: Miami Beach

The Global Champions Tour season began with two North American stages, the first of which took place in Miami Beach. Miami Beach was part of the Global Champions Tour for the second time, for the tournament a makeshift riding stadium was built on the beach of Miami Beach at the level of the Setai Hotel. The tournament took place from April 7th to 10th, 2016. On the penultimate day the GCT special test was on the program, on the last day the first test of the new Global Champions League was held.

Global Champions Tour: In the first lap of the GCL special stage, 17 starter pairs remained without mistakes, the fastest time of the error-free riders with a lead of over a second was achieved by David Will with Mic Mac du Tillard . In the second round of this test, a number of riders received four penalty points. This benefited Kevin Staut , who, with Elky van het Indihof, was the only participant with four penalty points from the first lap to the second lap, had no mistakes and was able to work his way up from 18th to 7th place with a fast lap. Six pairs remained without penalty points in both rounds, which earned them a place in the jump-off. Here three of them managed to ride without mistakes, Edwina Tops-Alexander won by a noticeable margin ahead of McLain Ward.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Edwina Tops-Alexander	Lintea Tequila	0	-	0	-	0	34.59	40
2	McLain Ward	Azure	0	-	0	-	0	35.78	37
3	Christian Ahlmann	Epleaser van't Heike	0	-	0	-	0	37.38	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 50 participants)

Global Champions League: After a test as part of the GCT tournament in Valkenswaard in August 2015, the first special test of the Global Champions League was held in Miami. This was the only exam on Sunday (April 10, 2016). In the first round there were quite a lot of mistakes, so that all teams with 10 or less penalty points moved into the round of the best eight teams. Only two teams were completely without mistakes in the first round. In the second round, both riders of the previously leading team Miami Glory ( Kent Farrington with Creedance and Georgina Bloomberg with Caleno ) received four penalty points, so that it slipped to third place. Antwerp Diamonds moved up to second place thanks to two flawless rides. The victory went to Valkenswaard United, who received four penalty points in the second round, but were faster than the second-placed team.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Valkenswaard United	John Whitaker with Lord of Arabia	0	0	60.43	4th	113.15	30th
		Bertram Allen with Quiet Easy	0	4th	52.72
2	Antwerp Diamonds	Audrey Coulter with Alex	4th	0	57.93	4th	118.59	27
		Harrie Smolders with Bokai	0	0	60.66

2nd exam: Mexico City

A few days after Miami, from April 14th to 17th, 2016, the second North American tournament of the tournament series was held. The tournament in Mexico City, however, was in complete contrast to Miami in terms of the task at hand: Instead of being at sea level, the participants were at a height of over 2,300 meters and thus on one of the highest tournament grounds in international equestrian sport. Instead of a small sand court as in the first stage, there was a large lawn with the Campo Marte .

Global Champions Tour: On the afternoon of April 16, 2016, a GCT special stage was held for the first time on Campo Marte. After a very high number of faultless rides in the special test in Miami, course designer Uliano Vezzani challenged the riders in Mexico more, there were only six rides without faults in the first round. For the second round, all riders qualified with five or less penalty points. A Mexican participant also succeeded, Antonio Chedraui got four penalty points in addition to his one time penalty from the first round in the second round and finished the test in twelfth place.

As in Miami, Christian Ahlmann and Epleaser van't Heike qualified for the jump-off, but with four penalty points he only came fourth out of four jump-off participants. Even with his gray Hector van d'Abdijhoeve , who was only nine years old , Bertram Allen was quick in the jump-off, four penalty points threw him back to third place. Roger-Yves Bost was even faster and without mistakes with the 12-year-old Qoud'Coeur de la Loge , which brought him the victory in this test.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Roger-Yves Bost	Qoud'Coeur de la Loge	0	-	0	-	0	37.23	40
2	Jos Verlooy	Caracas	0	-	0	-	0	41.63	37
3	Bertram Allen	Hector van d'Abdijhoeve	0	-	0	-	4th	38.19	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 42 participants)

Global Champions League: Exactly one day after the GCT exam, the Global Champions League special test was held. This jumping competition with two rounds was also a great challenge for the participant: two teams were eliminated in the first round due to the abandonment of one or both riders, none of the teams remained clear. This continued in the second round: only Harrie Smolders remained without mistakes in both rounds, but due to 21 penalty points from his team partner Jos Verlooy, the Antwerp Diamonds only found seventh place in the final result. The victory went to the Amazon team of the Shanghai Swans with ten penalty points.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Shanghai Swans	Edwina Tops-Alexander with Ego van Orti	4th	1	74.57	10	151.90	30th
		Janne Friederike Meyer with Charlotta	0	5	77.33
2	Cannes stars	Roger-Yves Bost with Sunshine du Phare	8th	2	79.18	15th	156.01	27
		Kevin Jochems with Zanzibar	0	5	76.83

3rd test: Antwerp

From April 21 to 24, 2016, the third stage of the Global Champions Tour was held in the port of Antwerp .

Global Champions Tour: Saturday (April 23, 2016) ended with the GCT special stage. In the first round of this test, 14 starting pairs remained without errors, after the second round the number of those who remained error-free was reduced to five. From the jump-off of these five riders, Pénélope Leprevost and her 11-year-old chestnut mare Flora de Mariposa emerged as the winner. Last year's winner, Simon Delestre, came in second with Hermes Ryan .

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Pénélope Leprevost	Flora de Mariposa	0	-	0	-	0	33.09	40
2	Simon Delestre	Hermes Ryan	0	-	0	-	0	33.74	37
3	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	Casall	0	-	0	-	0	34.59	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 45 participants)

Global Champions League: As the main test of the tournament Sunday, the Global Champions League stage was held on April 24th from 3:30 p.m. Three teams finished the first round without penalty points. However, none of the teams could maintain this result, so that after the second round four teams were at the top with four penalty points. With times of 111.77 seconds and 112.37 seconds, Antwerp Diamonds and Valkenswaard United came in first and second, followed by Monaco Aces and Rome Gladiators in third and fourth place.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Antwerp Diamonds	Audrey Coulter with dominoes	0	4th	55.80	4th	111.77	30th
		Jos Verlooy with Caracas	0	0	44.97
2	Valkenswaard United	Bertram Allen with Molly Malone	4th	0	55.38	4th	112.37	27
		John Whitaker with Ornellaia	0	0	56.99

4th test: Shanghai

Like Antwerp, Shanghai was part of the Global Champions Tour for the third time. The tournament, which was held under special quarantine conditions, was held from April 29 to May 1, 2016.

Global Champions Tour: The starting field in Shanghai was clear, in the GCT special stage 28 riders started with their horses. The time allowed hardly played a role in the first round, and none of the participants received time penalties. In addition to the faultless riders, four and thus more than half of the riders qualified for the second round with four penalty points.

Five participants made it into the jump-off. Christian Ahlmann tackled the jump-off with Colorit at high basic speed, with 40.68 seconds he achieved the best time in this jump-off. However, due to an obstacle drop, he only came in fifth, the other jump-off participants made no mistakes. Victory went to Abdullah asch-Scharbatly, who crossed the finish line with Tobalio in under 42 seconds.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Abdullah al-Sharbatly	Tobalio	0	-	0	-	0	41.97	40
2	Marco Kutscher	Van Gogh	0	-	0	-	0	42.27	37
3	Marc Houtzager	Calimero	0	-	0	-	0	43.26	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 28 participants)

Global Champions League: The starting field was also limited in the special stage of the Global Champions League, for the first time not all twelve, but only eleven teams were at the start. In the first lap, three teams crossed the finish line without errors, one team only received one time penalty. In the second round, Valkenswaard United and the Paris Jets, two teams crossed the finish line without penalty points, but both had collected penalty points in the first round. The victory went to the Cascais Charms, which were represented in Shanghai by the two under 30-year-old German riders Andreas Kreuzer and David Will and only had two time penalties in both laps.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Cascais Charms	Andreas Kreuzer with Zerafina	0	0	72.96	2	155.07	30th
		David Will with Monody H	0	2	82.11
2	Valkenswaard United	Alberto Zorzi with Fair Light van't Heike	0	0	73.99	4th	140.35	27
		Eduardo Menezes with Caruschka	4th	0	66.36

5th exam: Hamburg

For the ninth time, a stage of the Global Champions Tour was held as part of the German Show Jumping and Dressage Derby . Like every year , the tournament took place on the Ascension weekend , from May 4th to 8th, 2016 in Hamburg - Klein Flottbek .

Global Champions Tour: The GCT special stage is the Hamburg Grand Prix, which was held on the afternoon of May 7, 2016. In the first round of the test, 17 riders with their horses remained without obstacle errors, but three of them had a time penalty. With that, only the German champions from the previous year, Denis Nielsen with Cashmoaker , got into the second round of the participants with four penalty points . A second flawless lap and thus the jump-off was achieved by eight riders in the second lap. The victory went to Ludger Beerbaum, who, in the jump-off with Casello, was the only participant who was again faultless to achieve a time of less than 35 seconds.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Ludger Beerbaum	Casello	0	-	0	-	0	34.81	40
2	Harrie Smolders	Don Z	0	-	0	-	0	35.25	37
3	Daniel Bluman	Sancha	0	-	0	-	0	35.29	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 50 participants)

Global Champions League: In Hamburg, the GCL exam did not take place on Sunday, but on Friday evening. Here two teams remained flawless in both laps, so that the decision to win had to be made based on the time required in the second lap. The victory went to Valkenswaard United, which was represented by John Whitaker and Bertram Allen as in the victory in Miami and benefited from Allen's very fast time. The Antwerp Diamonds also competed with the same team as in Miami (these even with the same horses) and also came second.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Valkenswaard United	John Whitaker with Cassini's Chaplin	0	0	81.07	0	150.29	30th
		Bertram Allen with Romanov	0	0	69.22
2	Antwerp Diamonds	Audrey Coulter with Alex	0	0	75.04	0	153.92	27
		Harrie Smolders with Bokai	0	0	78.88

6th test: Madrid

The CSI of Madrid, held for the 106th time in the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid , provided the framework for the Spanish station of the Global Champions Tour / Global Champions League. The tournament took place from May 19-22, 2016.

Global Champions Tour: The Global Champions Tour special stage was held on Saturday (May 21) from 5:00 p.m. 14 pairs of starters made no mistakes in the first round, so for the second round of the best 18, one rider qualified with a time penalty point and the three fastest participants with four penalty points. In the second lap, six riders managed another faultless lap, so that they made it into the jump-off.

Already at the beginning of the jump-off, Abdullah asch-Scharbatly (who was the slowest rider without penalty points in the first lap ) with his 16-year-old gelding Tobalio achieved a very good, clear lap in a time of 36.08 seconds. The following jump-off participants did not come close to this time. The closest to this time was Eduardo Álvarez Aznar, who was only 30 hundredths of a second slower than asch-Sharbatly, to the cheers of his compatriots. Only the last rider, Marcus Ehning, managed an even faster time and, with the gelding Pret a Tout , who was only taken over at the beginning of the year, remained without penalty points and thus secured victory in this test.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Marcus Ehning	Pret a toout	0	-	0	-	0	35.17	40
2	Abdullah al-Sharbatly	Tobalio	0	-	0	-	0	36.08	37
3	Eduardo Álvarez Aznar	Rokfeller de Pleville	0	-	0	-	0	36.38	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 50 participants)

Global Champions League: On Sunday evening, following the traditional King's Cup (Copa del Rey), the Global Champions League stage was held in Madrid. In the first round, five of the twelve teams received no penalty points, but none of the teams succeeded in the second round. The Cannes Stars only had one obstacle drop, but as both riders crossed the finish line with rather slow times and Marco Kutscher even got a time penalty, the team shot down to second place. Only four penalty points and two quick rides brought the Rome Gladiators team, consisting of Laura Renwick and Laura Kraut, victory.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Rome gladiators	Laura Kraut with Confu	0	4th	72.68	4th	141.78	30th
		Laura Renwick with Bintang II	0	0	69.10
2	Cannes stars	Marco Kutscher with Clenur	0	1	79.84	5	157.36	27
		Roger-Yves Bost with Sunshine du Phare	0	4th	77.52

7. Exam: Chantilly

The CSI 5 * tournament in Chantilly , which was always held in July in previous years, took place in 2016 from May 26th to 29th, 2016 and thus opened the succession of four Global Champions Tour tournaments in France and Monaco. The event took place on the grounds of the racecourse on the edge of the castle of Chantilly .

Global Champions Tour: On the afternoon of May 28th, the GCT special stage was on the agenda. In the first lap there were 14 faultless rides, the four fastest participants with four penalty points filled the starting field of the second lap. No fewer than eight riders and their horses managed to make no mistakes in both rounds and thus to enter the jump-off. Here it was Ludger Beerbaum who crossed the finish line as the fastest of four faultless jumpers and won the test.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Ludger Beerbaum	Chiara	0	-	0	-	0	38.28	40
2	Daniel Deußer	First Class van Eeckelghem	0	-	0	-	0	38.98	37
3	Daniel Bluman	Conconcreto Apardi	0	-	0	-	0	39.45	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 47 participants)

Global Champions League: The GCL exam was carried out as the end of the day on Sunday. In the first round there were only a few mistakes, so that a result of at least four penalty points per team was necessary for the entry into the second round of the best eight teams. The second lap, on the other hand, was marked by significantly more errors, none of the teams remained completely error-free here. With one penalty point each from both laps, the Madrid in Motion team won.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Madrid in motion	Gonzalo Añón Suarez with Qlamp d'Ivraie	1	1	77.54	2	154.19	30th
		Pedro Veniss with For Felicila	0	0	76.65
2	Rome gladiators	Laura Renwick with Heliodor Hybris	0	4th	72.09	4th	146.20	27
		Marlon Módolo Zanotelli with Valetto	0	0	74.11

8th test: Cannes

The Jumping Cannes tournament took place in Cannes from June 9th to 11th, 2016 . The venue is the Stade des Hespérides football stadium , which is located in the immediate vicinity of the Boulevard de la Croisette.

Global Champions Tour: Only eight participants made no mistakes in the first round of the Grand Prix of Cannes, so that one rider entered the second round with one time penalty and nine with four penalty points. In the second lap there were ten clear rounds, four of the eight participants who had not made any mistakes so far made it into the jump-off.

The jump-off itself was characterized by constant changes in leadership: all riders in the jump-off made no mistakes. Roger-Yves Bost had already shown a fast ride (40.52 seconds) with his 10-year-old mare Sangria du Coty , but Daniel Deußer, Edwina Tops-Alexander and Scott Brash were even faster as the following starters - on average almost a second per participant. Brash won the test with his Oldenburg gelding.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Scott Brash	Forever	0	-	0	-	0	37.98	40
2	Edwina Tops-Alexander	Lintea Tequila	0	-	0	-	0	38.67	37
3	Daniel Deußer	Equita van't Zorgvliet	0	-	0	-	0	39.32	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 50 participants)

Global Champions League: Since the tournament in Cannes traditionally ends on Saturday, a GCL test was held directly after a Global Champions Tour test for the first time. The Global Champions League in Cannes started on June 11th at 10 p.m. From the first round, three teams emerged without errors, which were also in the top three places in the final result. While seven of the remaining teams collected a higher number of penalty points in the second round, the Monaco Aces team, represented by two Dutch riders, remained completely error-free and thus won.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Madrid in motion	Leopold van Asten with Miss Untouchable	0	0	72.39	0	145.00	30th
		Maikel van der Vleuten with Quatro	0	0	72.61
2	Paris jets	Gregory Wathelet with Coree	0	4th	66.29	4th	146.20	27
		Olivier Philippaerts with Challenge v. Begijnakker	0	4th	71.58

9th test: Monaco

Two weeks after Cannes, the GCT made another stop on the Côte d'Azur. The Jumping International de Monte Carlo tournament took place from June 23 to June 26, 2016 on a provisional sand court on the banks of Boulevard Albert 1er at Port Hercule in Monaco .

Global Champions Tour: The course of the first round of the Grand Prix du Prince de Monaco, which was held on the evening of June 25th, was manageable for the participants, 29 of 42 starters crossed the finish line with four or fewer penalty points. Since 16 starter pairs remained without mistakes, only the two riders with the fastest of the four-error rides entered the second round.

As the fourth starter in the second lap, Janne Friederike Meyer and Chuck as the first participant succeeded in both laps without any obstacle errors. In the second lap she was initially over the allowed time, as this was increased after her ride (the third completed ride in the second lap), but then she went into the jump-off. Eight other riders qualified for the jump-off with their horses.

While Janne Friederike Meyer was the first female competitor to make no mistakes, but required a time of over 40 seconds (6th place in the final classification), Rolf-Göran Bengtsson crossed the finish line in under 38 seconds. As the third starter in the jump-off, Emanuele Gaudiano and his gray stallion Caspar only needed 36.64 seconds for the course. With this faultless ride, Gaudiano took the lead until the end of the jump-off and won the test. Piergiorgio Bucci and the 12-year-old Casallo Z took second place , so there was an Italian double success here (just over 10 kilometers from the Italian border).

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Emanuele Gaudiano	Caspar	0	-	0	-	0	36.64	40
2	Piergiorgio Bucci	Casallo Z	0	-	0	-	0	37.37	37
3	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	Casall	0	-	0	-	0	37.95	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 42 participants)

Global Champions League: The Monaco tournament, which otherwise traditionally ends on Saturday evening, was extended in 2016 for the Global Champions League and three framework tests (invitation tests) until Sunday afternoon. In the first round of the GCL test, the Monaco Aces team made no mistakes, Doha Fursan Qatar came second with just one time penalty. The second round threw the result clearly upside down: The Doha Fursan Qatar team was eliminated and fell back to eighth place, eight penalty points for Monaco Aces caused them to fall back to second place. The team Valkenswaard United, which is in third place after the first round together with two other teams, remained without errors and won the test with only four penalty points.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Valkenswaard United	Bertram Allen with Izzy by Picobello	0	0	63.57	4th	128.20	30th
		Eduardo Menezes with Caruschka	4th	0	64.63
2	Monaco Aces	Daniel Bluman with Apardi	0	0	61.86	8th	126.65	27
		Schuyler Riley with Dobra de Porceyo	0	8th	64.79

10th exam: Paris

For the third time, a stop on the Global Champions Tour took place in Paris. The Paris Eiffel Jumping tournament was held at the same time as the final round of the European Football Championship in France and, for the first time, did not take place on the Marsfeld in the immediate vicinity of the Eiffel Tower. The open space La Plaine de Jeux de Bagatelle , bordering the Bois de Boulogne , was chosen as an alternative venue.

Global Champions Tour: The GCT special stage in Paris was held on July 2nd, 2016 from around 6 p.m. 14 riders and their horses made no mistakes in the first round of the test, four fast participants with four penalty points also qualified for the second round. While the five other German riders missed the entry into the second round, this was achieved for the first time (at his second start in a GCT test) the 18-year-old Philip Houston . With his gray gelding Loewenherz he finished the first round in first place, with four penalty points in the second round he finished the test in eighth place. Six participants made it through to the jump-off without any mistakes from both rounds.

In the jump-off everything pointed to a French victory: Pénélope Leprevost and Vagabond de la Pomme were the first clear jump-off participant in less than 40 seconds, her compatriot Simon Delestre was ten hundredths of a second faster. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and his experienced 17-year-old stallion Casall were the last to start the jump-off course. Bengtsson made no mistakes and secured victory with a time of 38.50 seconds.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	Casall	0	-	0	-	0	38.50	40
2	Simon Delestre	Hermes Ryan	0	-	0	-	0	39.02	37
3	Pénélope Leprevost	Vagabond de la Pomme	0	-	0	-	0	39.12	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 46 participants)

Global Champions League: The tenth stage of the GCL took place on the evening of July 3rd. With the first round of the Global Champions League of Paris, three teams remained without penalty points, another five finished the round with only four penalty points. While the Cannes Stars team received a time penalty in the second round per rider and thus finished the test in second place, Harrie Smolders and Audrey Coulter secured their second win of the season for the Antwerp Diamonds.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Antwerp Diamonds	Harrie Smolders with Capital Colnardo	0	0	71.46	0	143.13	30th
		Audrey Coulter with Alex	0	0	71.67
2	Cannes stars	Marco Kutscher with Clenur	0	1	78.16	2	155.49	27
		Roger-Yves Bost with Sunshine du Phare	0	1	77.33

11th test: Estoril

The Portuguese stage of the Global Champions Tour / Global Champions League was held in the Hipódromo Manuel Possolo in Cascais . For the first time since 2013, the tournament again included exams on three instead of two days; it was held from July 7th to 9th, 2016. The special stages of the two series of tournaments were held on July 9th from 5 p.m.

Global Champions Tour: 13 riders and their horses made no mistakes in the first round of the GCT test in Cascais, so that the top five participants completed the field of the second round with four penalty points. After a flawless first lap, Christian Ahlmann, who had previously led the GCT overall standings with a clear lead at times, got eight penalty points with Caribis Z in the second lap . In the end, he came in 14th place and lost his top position. A significantly better result - a second clear round in the second round - was achieved by eight riders.

In the jump-off of these eight riders, the first faultless ride went to the third starter, Piergiorgio Bucci with Casallo Z (a son of Casall , the winner of Paris). Edwina Tops-Alexander and Bertram Allen also managed this, but with just over 50 seconds they were around a second slower than Bucci. During the test there was a strong wind from the nearby Atlantic coast, which tipped over parts of obstacles. Olivier Philippaerts , who was the last participant in the jump-off, was hit hardest : just a few seconds after he had overcome an obstacle with his gray horse Legend of Love , the wind brought it down. Philippaerts was fast in the jump-off and only hundredths of a second slower than Bucci, but a mistake at a later obstacle buried his chance of victory.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Piergiorgio Bucci	Casallo Z	0	-	0	-	0	49.07	40
2	Edwina Tops-Alexander	Lintea Tequila	0	-	0	-	0	50.08	37
3	Bertram Allen	Hector van d'Abdijhoeve	0	-	0	-	0	50.14	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 33 participants)

Global Champions League: In the GCL test, which took place immediately after the Global Champions Tour stage, only two teams remained without errors in the first round. While the Antwerp Diamonds slipped to third place with eight penalty points, the victory went to the Vienna Eagles, who finished all four rides with flawless results. The Shanghai Swans, who only got one time penalty in addition to their penalty points from the first round, moved into second place.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Vienna Eagles	Danielle Goldstein with Czerny N	0	0	73.30	0	148.63	30th
		Lauren Hough with Waterford	0	0	75.33
2	Shanghai Swans	Alexandra Thornton with Caballero	4th	0	74.42	5	152.43	27
		Edwina Tops-Alexander with Ego van Orti	0	1	78.01

12th test: Valkenswaard

At the same time as the start of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro , the Dutch stage of the GCT was held. Since the show jumping competitions were only held in the second half of the Olympic Games, there were still a number of participants in the Olympic competitions in Valkenswaard from August 4th to August 7th, who then flew to Brazil after the tournament.

Global Champions Tour: In Valkenswaard, after two laps, six riders and their horses qualified for the jump-off. Four of them managed a flawless ride here too. With the fastest time of these four, victory went to the winning couple from Paris, Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and Casall .

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	Casall	0	-	0	-	0	41.36	40
2	Laura herb	Cavalia	0	-	0	-	0	41.53	37
3	Alberto Zorzi	Fair Light van't Heike	0	-	0	-	0	42.53	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 49 participants)

Global Champions League: The GCL special stage was held on Sunday afternoon. The tournament was successful for Jan Tops' rider, Alberto Zorzi, who works in Valkenswaard. After he had already finished third in the GCT, he was part of the victorious Madrid in Motion team at the Valkenswaard Global Champions League. Together with Pedro Veniss, they were the only team to remain without obstacle errors.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Madrid in motion	Alberto Zorzi with Danique	1	0	80.86	1	162.80	30th
		Pedro Veniss with For Felicila	0	0	81.94
2	Antwerp Diamonds	Audrey Coulter with Alex	0	4th	74.35	4th	153.24	27
		Jos Verlooy with Caracas	0	0	78.89

13th exam: Rome

For the second time in a row, a stage of the Global Champions Tour was held in Rome . The Rome GCT tournament was held from September 8-11, 2016 at the Stadio dei Marmi . The weather upset the organizers' scheduling. Due to a violent thunderstorm, the Global Champions Tour test was interrupted after a few participants. The exam has been rescheduled to Sunday morning. The event was also affected by storms on Sunday afternoon, so the special stage of the Global Champions League was completely canceled.

Global Champions Tour: The rider with the best result of the first round of the Global Champions Tour special test, Jessica Mendoza , did not start in the second round. Therefore, 17 riders started here with their horses. Seven of these reached the piercing.

In the jump Maikel van der Vleuten put a good round with Arera C before. The next three starters in the jump-off also made no mistakes, but were slower than van der Vleuten. The second jump-off participant from Italy, Piergiorgio Bucci, managed to reach the finish faster than the leader, but a throw-off at the last obstacle earned him four penalty points, so that at the end of the jump-off he only came in seventh. Harrie Smolders as the next starter overcame the penultimate obstacle with Don Z at the same time as Maikel van der Vleuten. The way to the last obstacle I succeeded

I'm better, however, so that Smolders took the lead. Simon Delestre, as the last starter, tried to challenge Harrie Smolders for the lead, but was a little slower and finished the stage in second place.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Harrie Smolders	Don Z	0	-	0	-	0	33.11	40
2	Simon Delestre	Chesall	0	-	0	-	0	34.00	37
3	Maikel van der Vleuten	Arera C	0	-	0	-	0	34.07	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 41 participants)

14th exam: Vienna

The only Austrian stage of the Global Champions Tour was given a new venue in 2016: the Vienna Masters tournament was held from September 15 to September 18, 2016 on the Krieau trotting track .

Global Champions Tour: On the evening of September 17th, Vienna hosted the Global Champions Tour. In the first round 17 riders remained without mistakes. In addition to these, Edwina Tops-Alexander and Caretina de Joter entered the second lap with the fastest ride and a time penalty. Tops-Alexander also got a time penalty in the second lap, which brought them to twelfth place in the final result. Eleven riders finished the second round with their horses without any mistakes. Six of the eleven jump-off participants succeeded in the third round without mistakes. Marcus Ehning and Comme il faut clearly showed the fastest flawless ride in the jump-off with over a second ahead of second-placed Janne Friederike Meyer.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Marcus Ehning	Comme il faut	0	-	0	-	0	38.67	40
2	Janne Friederike Meyer	Goja	0	-	0	-	0	39.68	37
3	Simon Delestre	Chesall	0	-	0	-	0	40.18	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 46 participants)

Global Champions League: Sunday afternoon (September 18); after the Vienna Masters endowed with 62,000 euros, the GCL stage was organized by Vienna. In the first round of the test, three teams made no mistakes. Monaco Aces, without penalty points in the first lap, got four penalty points due to a mistake by Leopold van Asten , but thanks to the very fast time of Maikel van der Vleuten and Quatro (61.39 seconds), the team secured third place. The victory was made between the Rome Gladiators and Valkenswaard United, both of them had no penalty points again in the second round. The faster times of John Whitaker and Bertram Allen earned Valkenswaard United their fourth win of the season.

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Valkenswaard United	John Whitaker with Ornellaia	0	0	65.46	0	129.49	30th
		Bertram Allen with Romanov	0	0	64.03
2	Rome gladiators	Jack Towell with Emilie de Diamant	0	0	66.73	0	133.02	27
		Laura Renwick with Bintang II	0	0	66.29

15th exam: Doha

The venue for the final stage of the Global Champions Tour and Global Champions League was once again the capital of Qatar, Doha . The tournament was held from November 3rd to 5th, 2016 in the Al Shaqab riding facility built in 2013 .

Global Champions Tour: The last stage of the Global Champions Tour season took place under floodlights on the evening of November 5th. Nine riders qualified for the second round due to a faultless ride in the first round. Its starting field of 18 riders was filled with two riders with one time penalty each and additional riders with four penalty points. The first round was extremely successful for the German riders, all nine made it to the second round and thus made up half the field of participants. Most of the riders managed the second round without mistakes, seven remained without mistakes in both rounds and thus made it into the jump-off.

A decisive passage of the jump-off course was the way from the third from last to the penultimate obstacle, here the riders made a 270 degree turn with their horses. The turn had to be ridden as tightly as possible, but without losing too much momentum for the jump and the subsequent curved line to the final obstacle. Laura Kraut was the first rider to go into the jump-off, made no mistakes with the ceremony , but had not yet taken a full risk in the final phase. Janne Friederike Meyer followed as the second starter with Goja . With a time of 36.76 seconds, she was a good one second faster than Kraut, but scored four penalty points on the last jump. Daniel Deußer then managed to put First Class van Eeckelghem ahead of Laura Kraut in the result.

While Simon Delestre rode tactically with the stallion Chadino, who was taken over by Ferenc Szentirmai just a few weeks ago , and secured his good placement in the overall GCT ranking with a slow, faultless lap, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum attacked more and placed behind Deußer with Fibonacci . While Janne Friederike Meyer's time was still the fastest lap in the jump-off up to this point, this changed with the last ride. Rolf-Göran Bengtsson was, as Edwina Tops-Alexander did not make it into the second lap, already the winner of the overall ranking of the Global Champions Tour 2016. So he could ride with Casall on attack. Bengtsson made no mistakes and crossed the finish line four tenths of a second before Deusser's time, so that, in addition to the overall standings, he also won the GCT stage in Doha.

	equestrian	horse	1st round		2nd round		Sting		scoring points
			Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	Casall	0	-	0	-	0	36.44	40
2	Daniel Deußer	First Class van Eeckelghem	0	-	0	-	0	36.84	37
3	Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum	Fibonacci	0	-	0	-	0	37.26	35

(Places one to three out of a total of 41 participants)

Global Champions League: Two days before the final of the Global Champions Tour, the final of the Global Champions League had already been played. At 200,000 euros, the prize money for the test was only about half as high as in the GCT evaluation test, but based on the overall ranking after Doha, an extremely high prize money of 4.5 million euros was distributed to the twelve teams.

Also at the Global Champions League in Doha, the winner was Rolf-Göran Bengtsson, together with Nicola Philippaerts he formed the Paris Jets team, which was one of only two teams that made no mistakes. The Cannes Stars - represented by Roger-Yves Bost and Marco Kutscher - came second, also without mistakes, but much slower. All other teams got significantly higher penalty points: The third-placed Antwerp Diamonds ( Jos Verlooy / Harrie Smolders ) got 12 penalty points, Cascais Charms ( Andreas Kreuzer / Philip Houston) in fourth place with 17 penalty points and Janne Friederike Meyer and Alexandra Thornton as Shanghai Swans to 19 penalty points. John Whitaker with his championship horse Ornellaia and Bertram Allen with the experienced 18-year-old stallion Romanov achieved a result of 20 penalty points - for Valkenswaard United this was sixth place in this test, which was nevertheless enough to secure victory in the overall standings .

	team	Riders / horses	1st round	2nd round		total		scoring points
			Penalty points	Penalty points	Time ( s )	Penalty points	Time ( s )
1	Paris jets	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson with Clarimo	0	0	75.57	0	153.57	30th
		Nicola Philippaerts with Zilverstar T	0	0	78.00
2	Cannes stars	Roger-Yves Bost with Qoud'Coeur de la Loge	0	0	79.39	0	160.92	27
		Marco Kutscher with Clenur	0	0	81.53

Overall ratings

Global Champions Tour

The overall ranking decided the overall victory of the Global Champions Tour. Based on this ranking, a bonus prize money of 950,000 euros was awarded to the 18 most successful riders on the Global Champions Tour at the end of the season.

	equestrian	Miami	Mexico	Answer	Shanghai	Hamb.	Madrid	Chant.	Cannes	Monaco	Paris	Estoril	Valkensw.	Rome	Vienna	Doha	scoring points	Prize money (bonus)
1	Rolf-Göran Bengtsson	(0)	(29)	35	-	(0)	30th	31	(0)	35	40	-	40	32	(27)	40	283	€ 294,500
2	Edwina Tops-Alexander	40	(0)	(0)	33	(0)	(0)	33	37	(26)	28	37	31	28	(25)	(0)	267	€ 190,000
3	Christian Ahlmann	35	33	29	32	32	25th	(0)	(23)	(0)	(0)	23	(0)	-	-	30th	239	€ 123,500
4th	Simon Delestre	-	-	37	27	31	-	-	0	-	37	-	-	37	35	32	236	€ 76,000
5	Harrie Smolders	(0)	23	23	-	37	20th	-	(0)	-	30th	-	27	40	(0)	27	227	€ 47,500
6th	Bertram Allen	(0)	35	(0)	-	26th	33	(19)	(19)	22nd	(0)	35	23	24	23	(0)	221	€ 33,250
7th	Ludger Beerbaum	-	-	27	19th	40	-	40	(0)	-	(0)	19th	24	25th	(0)	25th	219	€ 33,250
8th	Kevin Staut	30th	(0)	30th	-	(0)	24	-	30th	-	23	25th	-	-	30th	19th	211	€ 19,000
9	Daniel Bluman	24	-	(0)	-	35	26th	35	-	0	24	22nd	-	-	29	-	195	€ 19,000
10	Marcus Ehning	-	-	-	-	33	40	-	29	-	-	-	0	-	40	28	170	€ 19,000
11	Jos Verlooy	19th	37	(0)	-	(0)	-	28	0	23	-	-	0	31	-	26th	164	€ 19,000
12	Olivier Philippaerts	-	-	0	28	0	32	27	21st	-	-	33	19th	-	-	(0)	160	€ 14,250
13	Lauren Hough	(0)	-	32	-	19th	(0)	24	0	-	0	20th	32	(0)	31	(0)	158	€ 14,250
14th	Emanuele Gaudiano	22nd	19th	24	31	0	0	-	0	40	-	(0)	(0)	21st	(0)	(0)	157	€ 14,250
15th	Maikel van der Vleuten	31	(0)	-	26th	-	0	-	0	-	0	-	26th	35	33	(0)	151	€ 9,500
16	Ali bin Chalid Al Thani	32	24	-	20th	(0)	27	(0)	0	-	0	(0)	-	26th	(0)	22nd	151	€ 9,500
17th	John Whitaker	29	31	25th	-	0	28	-	0	33	0	(0)	-	(0)	(0)	(0)	146	€ 7,125
18th	Scott Brash	(0)	0	-	24	-	0	0	40	25th	32	(0)	(0)	-	24	(0)	145	€ 7,125

Places one to 18, the eight best results of each rider are included in the overall ranking.

Global Champions League

While in the Global Champions Tour the greater part of the prize money is paid out in the individual tests, the situation is reversed in the Global Champions League: Here, prize money of around 200,000 euros was awarded in each of the special tests, but the majority of the prize money was made up the distribution at the end of the season. Here, an amount of 4.5 million euros was distributed among the teams. The largest amount of this went to the Valkenswaard United team, which during the season benefited in particular from the achievements of British show jumping legend John Whitaker and Bertram Allen , one of the most successful young riders, who was 40 years younger than him .

	team	Prize money (bonus)	Miami	Mexico	Answer	Shanghai	Hamb.	Madrid	Chant.	Cannes	Monaco	Paris	Estoril	Valkensw.	Rome	Vienna	Doha	scoring points
1	Valkenswaard United	30th	16	27	27	30th	15th	19th	20th	30th	25th	17.5	23	-	30th	19th	328.5	€ 1,363,125
2	Antwerp Diamonds	27	18th	30th	14th	27	25th	14th	16	25th	30th	25th	27	-	23	25th	326	€ 913,125
3	Monaco Aces	23	25th	25th	23	23	23	18th	30th	27	19th	13.5	25th	-	25th	16	315.5	€ 598,125
4th	Rome gladiators	18th	17th	23	17th	25th	30th	27	23	20th	23	17.5	14th	-	27	17.5	299	€ 373,125
5	Cannes stars	13	27	15th	19th	19th	27	25th	14th	13	27	20th	13	-	15th	27	274	€ 238,125
6th	Paris jets	16	13.5	16	25th	18th	14th	13	27	23	20th	23	17th	-	17th	30th	272.5	€ 193,125

best six of twelve teams, all results are included in the overall ranking.

Web links

• Global Champions Tour website (English)
• Global Champions League website (English)
• FEI tournament calendar
• Individual stages:
  • CSI 5 * Antwerp
  • CSI 5 * Hamburg
  • CSI 5 * Madrid
  • CSI 5 * Chantilly
  • CSI 5 * Cannes
  • CSI 5 * Monaco
  • CSI 5 * Paris
  • CSI 5 * Vienna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Next step: FEI continues to take action against Global Champions League , Reiter Revue International , December 9, 2015
2. ^ Result 1st round Longines GCT Grand Prix of Miami 2016
3. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Miami 2016
4. ^ Result of the Global Champions League of Miami Beach 2016
5. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Mexico City 2016
6. ↑ Result of the Global Champions League of Mexico City 2016
7. ^ Result of Longines GCT of Antwerp 2016
8. ↑ Result of the Global Champions League of Antwerp 2016
9. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Shanghai 2016
10. ↑ Result Global Champions League of Shanghai 2016
11. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Hamburg 2016
12. ↑ Result of the Global Champions League of Hamburg 2016
13. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Madrid 2016
14. ↑ Result of the Global Champions League of Madrid 2016
15. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Chantilly 2016
16. ^ Result Global Champions League of Chantilly 2016
17. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Cannes 2016
18. ^ Result Global Champions League of Chantilly 2016
19. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix du Prince de Monaco 2016
20. ↑ Result of the Global Champions League of Monaco 2016
21. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Paris 2015
22. ^ Result of the Global Champions League of Paris 2016
23. ^ Result Longines GCT Grand Prix of Cascais - Estoril 2016
24. ^ Victory in Estoril for Bucci - Ahlmann now second in the overall standings , Dieter Ludwig, July 10, 2016
25. ^ Result Global Champions League of Cascais, Estoril 2016
26. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Valkenswaard 2016
27. ↑ Result Global Champions League of Valkenswaard 2016
28. ↑ Global Champions League of Rome completely canceled , globalquestriannews.com, September 11, 2016
29. ^ Result of the Longines GCT Grand Prix of Rome 2016
30. ^ Result of Longines GCT of Vienna 2016
31. ^ Result of the Global Champions League of Vienna 2016
32. ^ Result of Longines GCT of Doha 2016
33. ^ Result Global Champions League of Doha 2016
34. ↑ Final result of the overall ranking Global Champions Tour 2016 (PDF)
35. ↑ Doha: John Whitaker and Bertram Allen win first Global Champions League title , St. Georg, November 4, 2016
36. ↑ Final result of the overall ranking Global Champions League 2016 (PDF)