Sharjah, Jan. 26. (BNA) — Bahrain Show Jumping Team Captain Shaikh Hassan bin Rashid Al Khalifa, capped off a successful two weeks for Bahraini show jumpers participation in the Sharjah Show Jumping Internationals by capturing his second podium finish of the tournament.
Shaikh Hassan rode his sponsors’ horse Stacal to fourth place in the 130m two-phase class, held in the newly built Sharjah outdoors arena.
The Bahraini team captain rode a fast and flawless round, finishing the second phase in a time of 20.19, enough to capture a fourth place podium finish among 80 international riders.
Shaikh Hassan is Bahrain’s only world ranked rider on the International Federation for Equestrian sports (Fédération Equestre Internationale, FEI) Longines world-ranking list.
He had also captured a third placed podium on the 140m big tour in the previous week’s competition, the Sharjah Ruler’s Cup, while Bahrain team member Shaikh Essa bis Salman Al Khalifa finished fourth on his horse Clitschko.
The Team Captain rode his grey stallion, HBR Lord Mclaren to the third place podium and finished with the second fastest four faults round of the day (28.25), in a class that saw only one horse and rider combination go double clear.
The Olaf Peterson designed course was big and tested the skills of both riders and horses, 4th placed Shaikh Essa followed closely, finishing in a time of 29.52.
The world ranked Shaikh Hassan narrowly missed out on another podium placing 7th with his horse HBR Versace and also placed in the money several other times, while team member Khalid Hilal Al Khatri was on his way to a win in the Rulers Cup small tour, but had an unlucky last fence down.
The Bahraini trio Shiakh Hassan, Shaikh Essa and Khalid Al Khatri have been the most successful team of riders to represent Bahrain internationally. The skilled show jumpers have placed in every single national and international event they competed in since the beginning of the UAE show jumping season, which started in September 2013. They have been great athletes and ambassadors for the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Shaikh Hassan said “it is a great start to the international, we are very happy with the results. I am very proud to be competing along with my teammates, especially that we are not just going in to participate, but to win and it is a great feeling to go into the international arena knowing we are considered to be as one of the favorites.”
He continued “There are many internationals left and we are hoping to go and achieve more world ranking points. I am hoping for my teammates to join me in the FEI Longines world-ranking list.”
Explaining his hopes for the future, Shaikh Hassan stated that the team is looking forward to achieve more successes in the upcoming Asian Games in South Korea. He added “we will be competing in the Dubai 3 star World Cup Qualifier event this coming weekend. We would also like to thank the president of Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation BREEF HH Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid Al Khalifa and everyone at BREEF for their continued support.”
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BNA 1352 GMT 2014/01/26