Sunday, 05 February 2012 Competition 16: CHAMPIONSHIP - 1.50 m

Martin Fuchs proves unstoppable – 19-year-old Swiss wins Championship – Third place for Christian Schranz (AUT)

The Carinthian audience flocked to the Glock Horse Performance Center in drones. The interest was in fact so great that not all the fans were able to get in! The atmosphere was nothing less than inspiring: each of the 48 riders could count on an audience that lived through every moment with them and you could have heard a pin drop when the first rider of the top 12 rode in for the second round.

Just eight obstacles remained on the course – just nine jumps on the way to victory. Enough for a good dose of goose bumps, especially when Austria's only participant in the finals, Christian Schranz from Lower Austria, made it right to the top with an impressive show on the back of mighty jumper Quartz van de Nieuwmolen, a stunning chestnut gelding. The cheers went on and on – but that was before Martin Fuchs entered the arena. The rider is just 19 years old, but put up an incredible performance with Karin Ii Ch, performing an incredibly narrow turn and going straight back to galloping. The resulting record time made him the winner of the championship. An incredible double whammy for the youngster: first place in the Silver Tour final, first place in the Championship, making him the winner of two of the four world ranking show-jumping events at the GHPC!

Jürgen Mayer was also driven: the German rider showed a smooth round with his ambitious stallion Roncador who gave it his all to the very last obstacle and helped his rider come second. Third place went to Austria's European Championship rider Christian Schranz, who once more put up a brilliant performance and was duly celebrated by the audience.

Right at the beginning of his career is eight-year-old grey "Kleiner Onkel" who appeared with the great rider Franke Sloothaak. Both were much loved by the audience and Sloothaak showed everyone how it's done, helping the son of Heartbreaker to come in third.

Incredibly bad luck for Hugo Simon: his mare Ukinda sprained an ankle during the warm-up for the Championship and the darling of the public was forced to resign. "What a shame", he said when he said good-bye to Gaston Glock, thanking him for the tournament. "This is the best that Austria has to offer. I'll be back!"

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