Longines Global Champions Tour: Excitement builds ahead of the thrilling season finale

Source: News Release

Excitement builds ahead of the thrilling season finale

(Photo: Stefano Grasso/LGCT)
At a press launch this morning, the key figures in the organisations of Al Shaqab and Longines Global Champions Tour set the scene for a fantastic final event of the season here in Doha, Qatar. From the 13-15 November, the very best riders in the world will compete at the state-of-the-art Al Shaqab stadium for over €1.7million in prize funds and the glory of being named 2014 Longines Global Champions Tour Champion.

The feature class of the show, and the final dramatic Grand Prix of the season, will take place on Saturday afternoon at 5.15pm local time. Three of the biggest stars in the sport - four-time Olympic Gold medallist Ludger Beerbaum (GER), World No1 Scott Brash (GBR) or two-time Olympic Silver medallist Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (SWE) - are in the running for the overall season title and the eyes of the equestrian world will be on Qatar to see who takes the coveted crown.

With the 2014 season about to reach it’s thrilling climax and the history books poised to add another star show jumping name to the Tour’s Hall OF Fame, Longines Global Champions Tour President Jan Tops hinted tantalisingly at the potential for a new US event next year and further new destinations planned for the Tour in 2016.

Meanwhile, another record-breaking season is galloping towards its grand finale, so don’t miss any of the action! The Longines Global Champions Tour of Doha Grand Prix highlights will be broadcast on Eurosport on Saturday 15th November, with live coverage shown from Saturday 3.15pm CET on beIN Sports, Al Kass, Horse&Country TV, GCT TV, Equidia Life and ClassHorseTV.

Press Conference
Present:
Fahad Al Qahtani - President of Al Shaqab
Jan Tops - Founder and President Longines Global Champions Tour
Omar Al Mannai - Al Shaqab Event Director
Marco Danese - Longines Global Champions Tour Sport Director

Fahad Al Qahtani: “In the name of God, we thank Mr Jan Tops and the organisers for this great opportunity. And we would like to thank the media also as they are one of the reasons for the success of this event, so thank you. We started in 2011 with events here and after the 2011 Arab Games we proved capable of organising major events and it’s the second year we do this event, very successful in size and value, and the best Champions are competing here at Al Shaqab. I thank you and wish you all success, and hope the public will enjoy this event.”

“We want to give the Al Shaqab experience: we are positioning ourselves with high targets and a vision, and we have the greater vision which is Qatar Foundation and community projects and community development opportunities. We have recreation for families, a riding centre and organising such an event as this. We are very careful about selecting events, making sure we relate to the right partners. We consider them strategic partners.”

Jan Tops: “It is always a pleasure to come to this venue, it is unique on the world stage. We have a great cooperation with the team here and it goes smoother every year. For Qatar, this last year has been so successful with Arabian horses, racing and the jumping. We are building a great partnership - Al Shaqab and GCT are hosting the greatest riders in the world for the final event of the season. We have a possibility of three winners, all olympic medallists, and we have a great weekend of sport ahead.”

Mr Tops went on to say Qatari rider Bassem Hassan Mohammed has a fantastic chance to get on the podium on Saturday, and highlighted Bassem’s history-making Grand Prix win in Monaco and the Qatari team’s Gold medal at the Asian Games this year. Speaking of their growing success, he added: “Now they are contenders to be on the podium, which is a tremendous change this last year especially, they are much more consistent and the crown was winning at the Asian Games last month."

“I have really good expectations for the preparation for the (2016) Olympics. We have a handful of really good riders and what we really want is to build up more riders to ten or fifteen of them at top level, and we can compete against the best nations in the world and medal in the Games.”

Omar Al Mannai: “We have the participants of all ages for the national competitions from Qatar Equestrian Federation and from the army, we have seen that it is good to have national competitions that give the opportunity for local riders to compete with the stars of the equestrian world."

Marco Danese: “We have 49 riders in CSI5* and 90 horses on site here at Al Shaqab. We always have the best riders and horses competing at almost all of the events.”