William Funnell placed second in the €285,000 Cannes Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix
Monday 17 June 2013
Forty-eight horse and rider combinations contested the fifth leg of the FEI 5* Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix. The course which was designed by Italian course designer Uliano Vezzani was not only big standing at 1.60m but also technical making it a tough challenge for both horses and riders.
William Funnell partnering Billy Congo, a 12 year-old brown stallion owned by Billy Stud, produced the first clear of the competition and bearing in mind they were drawn 17th to go in the first round it only serves to illustrate the difficulty of the course. Having set a precedent for others to follow, by the end of first round eight competitors had jumped clear thus qualifying for the second round. The second round saw only five of the eight jump another clear for a final jump off, one of which was William and Billy Congo.
Continuing with his immaculate form, William put in a superb performance to jump yet another clear in a time of 37.33 seconds. Pipped to the post by Germany’s Marcus Ehning who had managed to shave a second off Will’s time, they were relegated to 2nd place with Holland’s Maikel Van Der Vleuten into third place.
Full results and further information can be obtained by visiting www.globalchampionstour.com
.JPG "Sophia Rogers makes a winning return and Rachel Proudley claims a championship double at Pony of the Year Show")
