Christian and Coster lead the German charge at Leipzig…

Christian Ahlmann produced the perfect last-to-go round from Coster to win the eighth leg of the 2006/2007 FEI World Cup Jumping series in Leipzig, Germany this afternoon. “This is my very first World Cup success so I'm very happy” he said after leading the victory parade which was dominated by the host country as Marcus Ehning slotted into second, Marco Kutscher finished third and Ulrich Kirchoff was fourth.

From the outset it always looked like a home-side win. With seven of the 11 who made it into the jump-off carrying the German flag, the odds were very much stacked in their favour – the only real question was which of them would come out on top…..

Sweden's Rolf-Goran Bengtsson led the way over Frank Rothenberger's jump-off track and he meant business. With no FEI World Cup Jumping qualifying points to date he was keen to take advantage of his eligibility for the jump-off and he raced home with MacKinley in by far the quickest time when stopping the clock on 40.70 seconds but left two fences on the floor. It was Kirchhoff, second into the ring, who set the target when bringing Carino home with a clear round, although their time of 44.78 seconds looked beatable. Austria's Thomas Fruhmann and The Sixth Sense, winners of the Riders Tour series last month, were more than two seconds faster and it would have been the perfect early birthday present for this senior statesman of the sport who celebrates his 56th birthday next Tuesday if he could put this one in the bag too, but a single error in 42.48 denied him a top placing.

However reigning FEI World Cup champion Marcus Ehning was right on form all weekend, scooping the top prize of 1kg of gold when winning Saturday night's hotly-contested Grand Prix with Noltes Kuchengirl ahead of Ludger Beerbaum and Couleur Rubin in second and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and Le Mans in third. Riding the 14 year old Sandro Boy with which he claimed the title at the 2005/2006 FEI World Cup™ series final in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last April Ehning cruised home to change the leaderboard once again this afternoon as he shaved almost two full seconds off Kutscher's target.

This result sees Ahlmann replace Switzerland's Beat Mandli at the top of the FEI World Cup™ Western European League leaderboard, with a colossal 78 points easily earning his place at the final in Las Vegas in April. To date, about eight riders seem to have sufficient points to book their tickets to the American finale including Ahlmann (78), Mandli (64), Albert Zoer (50), Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (48), Judy-Ann Melchior (44), Gerco Schroder (42), Rene Tebbel (42) and Michael Whitaker (39). With 34 points under his belt Patrick McEntee only has a little more to do in order to make the cut, but for the rest, the five remaining qualifying rounds – at Amsterdam next weekend, Bordeaux, Vigo and Gothenburg in February and at 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland in March – are all-important.

Results (21.01.06)
CSI-W Leipzig – Germany
JUMPING QUALIFIER AT LEIPZIG PRESENTED BY SPARKASSEN
Grand Prix – W – AM5 – 1,50m

1º Christian Ahlmann (Ale) / Cöster / 0/0-42,23
2º Marcus Ehning (Ale) / Sandro Boy / 0/0-42,46
3º Marco Kutscher (Ale) / Controe / 0/0-44,43
4º Ulrich Kirchhoff (Ale) / Carino / 0/0-44,78
5º Patrick Mc Entee (Bel) / Ever Mury Marais Z / 0/0-47,84
6º Thomas Frühmann (Aut) / The Sixth Sense / 0/4-42,48
7º Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (Ale) / Checkmate / 0/4-43,25
8º Ludger Beerbaum (Ale) / Enorm / 0/4-43,56
9º Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (Sue) / Mac Kinley / 0/8-40,7
10º Pia-Luise Aufrecht (Ale) / Abrisca / 0/8-44,73

28º Luciana Diniz (Por) / Dover / 8-69,98