Qatar's Bassem Hassan Mohamed finished second with Gunder at the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix du Prince de Monaco on Saturday night. Maikel van der Vleuten won the event in a tight finish where the top four in the elite show jumping event were separated by a little over a second.

The Dutchman and Beauville Z put in a flawless performance in the 10-way jump off and clocked in at 33.06 seconds, 0.06 seconds faster than Bassem and Gunder. The lightning-quick combination of Julien Epaillard and Usual Suspect d'Auge could only manage a third place finish.

Bassem had made history in Monaco in 2014 by taking Qatar's first ever GCT Grand Prix win with his horse Victoria. This year he had to settle for second, but was delighted nonetheless and the Qatari rider said: "Gunder is always very good in the jump-off and today he jumped really amazing. With all these top riders it is never over until the end." Bassem and Gunder pivoted round the opening few roll-backs. The Qatari rider pushed every button and, accelerating round the latter fences, the brilliant pair scorched home and into the lead, clear in 33.12, to appreciative cheers.

Pieter Devos still leading the way but Ben Maher jumped ahead of Daniel Deusser and this win in Monaco pushed Maikel van der Vleuten up to fourth position with nine events left.

Source: QNA, Photo credit: Gulf Times

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Binu Cherian

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