GOTHENBURG, Sweden, April 4 (Xinhua) -- World No. 1 Steve Guerdat of Switzerland took the early lead with Alamo in the opening competition at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final at the Scandinavium Arena here on Thursday.
The 36-year-old Guerdat, the third-last to go with Alamo, overtook Belgian trio of Pieter Devos, Olivier Philippaerts and Francois Mathy Jr to take the top position. Three three Belgians had held the top three places after brilliant runs over the 13-fence course set by ace Spanish course designer Santiago Varela.
Guerdat, the individual gold winner at the 2012 London Olympic Games, cut a completely clean path to clock 61.28 seconds for the win, squeezing Devos out of pole position by just three-hundredths of a second.
America's defending champions Beezie Madden, 55, and her 13-year-old stallion Breitling LS, settle for the 10th spot after dropping the very last fence.
Guerdat said that his decision to bring the less-experienced Alamo to these Finals instead of his top ride, Albfuehrens Bianca, wasn't an easy one to make.
"Bianca is my number one choice for the (Olympic) Games next year, so I thought maybe on the way to there she doesn't need to do all the Championships. I thought if I have a slightly small chance with Alamo I will take it."
"I'm very happy, he jumped good. I had a fast round without taking too much out of the horse. I know that this horse does not go as fast as my other horses, but I know he is quite quick, so I just tried to stay focussed on my plan and what I wanted to do. I didn't think too much about the others were doing" he said.
Guerdat has won the World Cup title twice before, first at Las Vegas in 2015 and then again the following year in Gothenburg.
"Everything looks good today but everything can look much different tomorrow," said Guerdat, who is competing in his 13th World Cup Final.
