The Swede Von Eckermann won the Parkour Super Grand Prix in Prague
Updates: 21.11.2021 00:04
Released: 20.11.2021, 23:26
Prague – Swede Henrik von Eckermann on horseback King Edward won the individual show jumping Super Grand Prix at the Prague Playoffs. The fourth man of the individual race at the Tokyo Olympics drove both laps clean and in the last he had a better time than the flawless Spaniard Sergio Álvarez Moya, a member of the Prague Lions home team. Olympic champion and defender of the previous year’s trophy, Brit Ben Maher with Explosion, finished third at the culmination of the Global Champions League series.
There were five flawless riders in the first round of the Super Grand Prix. The second representative of the Prague Lions did not include the Belgian Niels Bruynseels, who dropped one obstacle and scored four penalty points. He also had one mistake in the second round and finished eighth.
Álvarez Moya, who, unlike the unsuccessful seven team competitions in the O2 arena, did not make a mistake in the Alama saddle with two great performances. He was the first to score second and led ahead of the last two riders.
He was not even deposed by the star Brit Maher, whose Explosion threw the penultimate obstacle on his hind legs. Von Eckermann, 40, racing on an unseen horse, was already fascinated by entering the bowling alley, where he passed from the entrance gate. “I tried to calm him down, so we backed off. In the end, it turned out to be the best option for him to stay calm,” she explained at a press conference.
Obstacles after his ride remained in place and in all the best laps they were 1.66 seconds faster than Álvarez, which was decisive in the point agreement. “I saw Explosion. I was a little relieved that he made one mistake, that there was an opportunity for me. The horse jumped great, even better than in the first round,” he praised himself.
He received a premium of almost 301,000 euros (over 7.6 million crowns) for the triumph. After the Olympic gold from the team competition, which the Swedes won in the summer after 97 years, he won a great individual triumph. She won the Super Grand Prix last when she won in Šamorín.
On Sunday, the Prague Playoffs will culminate in the two-round finals of the team competition. The Prague Lions lost their chance to win the Super Cup trophy in seventh place in six, which did not make it to the final six.