Steve Guerdat, world number one again!

After an amazing season, Steve Guerdat is the new world number one. Even if it is not a huge surprise, the FEI formalized it on January 02. This last world ranking of the year includes all the results between January 1st and December 31st, which means the 36-year-old rider is the best jumping athlete of 2018. His consecration follows a series of impressive results last month, most notably a very emotional victory in the IJRC Top 10 Final at Geneva in front of his home crowd. Individual bronze medalist with his amazing Bianca at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon last September, Steve Guerdat is also rewarded for his regularity during the year as he performed lots of great shows around the world. After nine legs, Switzerland’s rider also leads the Longines FEI World Cup and will be aiming for a third victory in the final at Goteborg after he won in 2015 and 2016. The last time he reached the top of the Longines ranking list was in 2012. It was few months after he won the Olympic Games in London with his retired champion, Nino des Buissonnets.

Steve Guerdat jumped ahead of the Dutch Harrie Smolders who led the ranking for several months. Marcus Ehning switched places with McLain Ward and took the third place. Very close to the German, the American rider had to settle for the fourth place. Sweden’s Peder Fredricson, current European champion remains fifth.

This year, the best British rider is Ben Maher. He is in seventh position right after Germany’s Daniel Deusser. He managed to reach the top 10 thanks to his good results this year particularly with Explosion W, like in Doha last November, Rome in September or Madrid in May. Sweden’s Henrick Von Eckermann, United States’ Beezie Madden and Steve Guerdat’s compatriot Martin Fuchs complete the Top 10.

Seven others British riders appear in the top 100. Former world number one and winner of the Rolex Grand Slam in 2015 with Hello Sanctos, Scott Brash is now forty-second. He is followed by Amanda Derbyshire, sixty-fourth, Laura Renwick, seventy-third, Holly Smith, seventy-fifth, William Whitaker, eighty-fifth, Michael Whitaker, ninety-fifth and finally Guy Williams, ninety-ninth.

Full ranking here