Willem Greve and Highway M TN win the Grand Prix Sport Vlaanderen at Jumping Mechelen

A ‘Thrilller night’ on Thursday at the Christmas Arena. The 39 Grand Prix participants were presented with a challenging course. Only 5 of them could stay clear. Time for an exciting jump-off:

Thibault Philippaerts, showed himself more than worthy of the title of “Talent of the Year”. But Derby de Riverland (Kannan x L’arc de Triomphe) had one down in the jump-off: 4 points. Jeroen Appelen and Moningo – D of’t Heyveld (Thunder van de Zuuthoeve x Brown Boy) had more luck. With a clever, fast and clear round, they rushed to the top position. But not for long. Because with a truly spectacular ride they were immediately beaten by the Dutch Willem Greve and Highway M TN (Eldorado of the hexagon x Chellano Z). For a moment it seemed that Olivier Philippaerts would immedialty knock him of the top postion but with H&M Legend of Love (Landzauber x Corgraf) he had a very unfortunate rail down on the very last jump. When the Swiss Edouard Schmitz with Gamin van’t Naastveldhof (Tannenhof’s Chacco Chacco x Toulon) had the first jump of the double down, there was no one left standing between Willem Greve and his victory.

“It was a challenging course,” Willem Greve said. “I was on in the middle of the jump-off. That means you always have to take risks. Luckily that turned out really well for me! To win in the Nekkerhal is really amazing.. so amazing. The audience, the atmosphere, … unbelievable. The Belgians may be a bit louder for a compatriot but you just feel in their enthousiasm how they love our sport. The audience is filled with enthousiastic, passionate jumping fanatics, this makes winning at Jumping Mechelen extra special.”

Meanwhile, the tension for the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping is rising today. Willem Greve will also be competing for the World Cup. “I’m feeling good and I hope I can pull off a good performance in the World Cup.”