Abdelkebir Ouaddar wins the Grand Prix Hermès at Saut Hermès in Paris

Riding Quickly de Kreisker, Ouaddar came out on top in a fast jump-off showdown beating Great Britain’s Scott Brash in second and Germany’s Christian Ahlmann in third.

Thirty nine horse and rider combinations entered the competition testing themselves against a technical track set by course designer Frank Rothenberger. Sixteen riders managed to leave all the fences intact and qualified for what promised to be an exciting jump-off.

The jump-off track was cut down to eight jumps, and The Netherlands’ Maikel van der Vleuten was first to go aboard VDL Groep Arera C. Their efficient round came at the cost of four faults for an eventual twelfth place finish.

Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs went for a safe clear round in 42.31 seconds which was good enough for fifth place after all sixteen riders had finished their rounds. That was before in-form Marcus Ahlmann went clear on Epleaser van’t Heike, and in a time 39.47 which was nearly three seconds faster than Fuchs.

Great Britain’s Michael Whitaker went for a fast time, but had a brick down on the wall before he nearly crashed into a fence in his run against the clock. Qatar’s Bassem Hassan Mohammed, Germany’s Hans-Dieter Dreher and Italy’s Emanuele Gaudiano all ended at four faults, whilst Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann had two fences down before Marcus Ehning and Pret a Tout rode a clear round but 0.49 seconds behind Ahlmann.

Scott Brash and Hello Forever put up a great performance, producing a clear round in 38.78 second to take over the lead ahead of Ahlmann.

The next four combinations all had four faults but Malin Baryard-Johnsson played it safe with her relatively new ride H&M Cue Channa 42, securing sixth place with a clear round in 48.52.

However Ouaddar and Quickly de Kreisker showed why they were named the best combination on the 2015 FEI Jumping Ranking for no reason. Generating fast speed from start to finish, the pair cut off an unbelievable 2.38 seconds on Brash’ time to take the title.

On Saturday at the Saut Hermès, Finland’s Anna-Julia Kontio and Switzerland’s Romain Duguet won the Le Saut Hermès competition, a class involving mixed-pair teams made up of a male and a female rider.

The pairs are decided by draw and the teams compete in a class over two rounds. The ranking is established by adding the scores over the two rounds, with the time of the second round used to separate teams if they finish with the same overall score.

Two pairs managed to ride clear rounds in the first round. Great Britain’s Jessica Mendoza – who took part in the Talents Hermès last year, and home favourite Roger-Yves Bost, proved up to the challenge as well as Kontio and Duguet, who is a Hermès partner rider.

In the second round, Bost, riding Record d’Oréal, knocked a rail down putting him and his team-mate Mendoza fourth on the final rankings. However, Kontio, riding Pacific des Essarts and Duguet, riding Twentytwo des Bich, managed to hold firm to the end. Nonetheless, there was pressure on the Swiss rider’s shoulders as he was the last rider out and needed to complete a clear round for his duo to win the class.

USA’s Lucy Davis and France’s Kevin Staut finished second with four penalties and a time of 76.22 seconds, with Great Britain’s Laura Renwick and Germany’s Daniel Deusser ending third also with four faults and a time of 76.92 seconds.

The Saut Hermès event kicked off on Friday with Ireland’s Bertram Allen again winning the 1.50 speed class Prix Hermès Sellier.
Similar to last year, the young Irishman took the honours riding Romanov as none of the other 33 riders managed to better their time of 50.71 seconds.

The reigning European and World Champion Jeroen Dubbeldam, riding, crossed the finish line in 52.75 seconds on Carusso LS La Silla, which was just one tenth of a second ahead of third-placed Jessica Mendoza.

In the first CSI5 star competition of the weekend, a 1.45 class, Switzerland’s Pius Schwizer got off to a winning start on Leonard de la Ferme.

Schwizer rode the fastest of the 14 clear rounds, finishing with a time of 26.48, less than a second ahead of the world championship silver medallist, France’s Patrice Delaveau, on Carijno HDC.