Las Vegas, April 2015 – Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat won yesterday night in Las Vegas (USA) the World Cup final aboard the Selle Français mare Paille de la Roque. Fifth in the first leg on Thursday, winner Friday in the jump-off class, yesterday he went in the ring for his last round with 0 points while Penelope Leprevost and Bertram Allen had nine, therefore the world title seemed to be safely in his hands. But never say never… as there was a first fault at fence five. Guerdat had also the very tight time allowed in his mind: with even two faults he would be the winner but with nine points… jump off against Leprevost and Allen! “I don’t really want to think about it!”, he said afterwards. “I didn’t expect the first mistake, those four strides (from fence 4 to 5a) turned out to be very, very long, and that triple combination wasn’t good for me at all, but once we were past that I thought now stay calm. But coming to the last I knew the time was tight. I could hear Martin Fuchs outside the arena saying ‘go, go!’ and I don’t know what I did. I just went as fast as I could to the finish line, but unfortunately there was a big fence in the way!”, he said with a laugh. Actually Paille de la Roque almost crashed in that last big parallel but fortunately with no other consequence than a four fault giving Guerdat the chance to finally capture the long awaited World Cup trophy: “I’ve been trying a long time to win this and I’ve come close many times. It’s the third time I was in the lead going into the final competition, and today I nearly messed it up again! Coming to the last I was riding more like a cow-horse rider”, Guerdat admits afterwards. “I’m so happy, I feel blessed!”.
April 20, 2015
