Germany’s Schulze Topphoff springs a super surprise at La Coruña
German young gun, 23-year-old Philipp Schulze Topphoff, made his World Cup debut a winning one at the fifth leg of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ 2021/2022 Western European League at La Coruña in Spain this evening.
German young gun, 23-year-old Philipp Schulze Topphoff, made his World Cup debut a winning one at the fifth leg of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ 2021/2022 Western European League at La Coruña in Spain this evening.
Clear when pathfinder in the first round with the 11-year-old grey mare Concordess NRW, he was then first to go in the seven-horse jump-off against the clock and set an unbeatable target when breaking the beam in 37.69 seconds.
The French partnership of Gregory Cottard and his mare Bibici finished a close second when also foot-perfect in 37.78 seconds while Sweden’s Angelica Augustsson-Zanotelli lined up in third with Kalinka van de Nachtegaele in 38.39 seconds.
Schulze Topphoff’s opening round made the track created by Olympic course designer, Santiago Varela, look deceptively easy. But it was far from that, with the final three fences in particular catching out some of the world’s best horse-and-rider combinations.
Today’s result has rocketed the young German who won individual gold at the 2019 FEI European Young Riders Championship all the way up to joint-ninth place on the Western European League table ahead of the next leg of the series which takes place in London (GBR) next Sunday, 19 December.
Ireland’s Denis Lynch continues to head the leaderboard while Brazil’s Eduardo Pereira de Menezes, who finished sixth today with H5 Chaganus, has moved up from eighth to second place.
