Christian Ahlmann and Mandato van de Neerheide win the World Cup in Mechelen!

The Nekkerhal in Mechelen was packed again this afternoon for the absolute highlight of the week: the Longines FEI Jumping Word Cup. As we are used to in Mechelen, it was once again an afternoon full of excitement and especially with top sport from the highest level!

Coursedesigner Bart Vonck had planned a tough basic round for his World Cup debut in which many combinations got into the fault, especially in the first part of the class. Halfway through the class, only 2 combinations managed to reach the finish without penalypoints. But the second part, which included many top competitors, did improve and ultimately 6 combinations managed to qualify for the jump-off.

One of those 6 was Christian Ahlmann, who earlier this week won the class for 6-year-old stallions with Ansingh De Lis Z (Aganix du Seigneur Z x Kannan). Ahlmann saddled for this class his 11-year-old gelding Mandato van de Neerheide (Emerald van 't Ruytershof x Pommeau du Heup) from breeder Eric Van Giel, with whom he performed strongly earlier this month during the World Cup of La Coruña in Spain. The duo entered the ring again as the 3rd combination and with a clear round in 34.23 seconds, Ahlmann once again won the World Cup in Mechelen after his victories in 2015 and in 2018!

Christian Ahlmann: “Its’ fantastic, no doubt about that! Mandato jumped incredible, we took the last risk and everything worked out like I could wish for. We had the fastest riders of the world behind us and still we could make it, so this was our day today!”

“We bought Mandato when he was six, but he didn’t do so much… He only jumped a few classes. He’s a huge, long horse with a lot of scope and I have the feeling that this year, after three years of jumping, his body is ready and for him every jump is almost the same. So the scope is no question, he’s willing to do everything, but what he did in the second half of this year was really good and he’s a horse for the future for sure.”

“It’s always nice to ride in Mechelen, the people love the horses here. They love the sport and they are behind all the riders, so it feels super good. Mechelen is very important for us because we have the stallion competition here and all the young ones are jumping so it’s a very interesting show. All the days are sold oud here, there’s an amazing crowd and it’s a lot of fun to ride in unbelievable sport every day. I’m enjoying the days here and every year we are really motivated to do something good. We have come many times and now three times it has worked out.”