In the huge grass arena at Riesenbeck in the heart of Germany, the Paris Panthers successfully closed the Championship gap to Riesenbeck International powered by Kingsland Equestrian with back-to-back GCL wins. The thrilling showdown culminated in a dramatic finale as Riesenbeck International, last to go, had a single unfortunate pole down, paving the way for the Paris Panthers, Ben Maher and Jur Vierling to secure the victory.
Today was a fiercely competitive battleground for the world’s top teams, and the Paris Panthers collected maximum points after a double clear with Long John Silver and Dallas Vegas Batilly in round 2. The final moments were nothing short of nail-biting when the pressure got to Christian Kukuk collecting a costly time fault in R1 and 4 faults in R2 with Just Be Gentle. But Philipp Weishaupt and 9-year-old Zineday kept all the poles up to secure the team second at their home event. Rounding off the podium, Shanghai Swans made a comeback in the second half of the season as Max Kühner on Eic Coriolis Des Isles and Daniel Deusser with Killer Queen VDM finished with a total of 8 faults.
Following their win, the winning duo sat down with GCTV. Following a rough start to the year, Ben Maher commented on the team’s progression as the GCL series has gone on: “We said last week that [this year] we’ve had a couple of rough rounds where things didn’t really go our way, which is the sport, but we do have a strong team. Jur joined me for the first time on the team together, which was fun, a lot of strength and depth in our team which is helping us towards the end of the season.”
Jur Vierling then added:“I think we still have a really good chance to fight for the Championship title until the end. Team tactics clearly played a big part in that Long John is not the quickest horse, but he has a lot of scope and could jump any fence in the world I think.”
Jumping on home soil added an extra level of pressure for the ultra-consistent team Riesenbeck International. With this event and the following to come, real make or break in the Championship standings, the pressure is now on as Paris Panthers creep up on the unsuspecting team.
