Luciana Diniz wins her second Basel Longines Grand Prix
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ByEurosport
Published 14/01/2015 at 09:27 GMT
Portugal’s Luciana Diniz marked the return to action for many of the world’s leading riders by winning the Longines Grand Prix at the CSI Basel Show in Switzerland.
Luciana Diniz (PA)
Image credit: PA Photos
Riding Fit for Fun, Diniz emerged the winner in Sunday’s feature class to earn victory in the event for a second time in her career following her triumph with Lennox in 2013.
After an exciting five-horse jump-off, Brazil's Marlon Zanotelli on Extra van Essene came in runner-up, with Great Britain's Scott Brash on Hello Sanctos taking third.
Of the 44 starters, only 15 horse and rider combinations made it through to the second round, before a further 10 departed at this stage, leaving just five to battle it out in the jump-off.
Diniz produced another excellent clear round when it mattered, her time of 29.20 seconds was 68 hundredths of a second faster than Zanotelli.
Brash produced another clear round in the jump-off, but was over a second behind that of Diniz.
Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet riding Conrad de Hus had the fastest time in the jump-off, but incurred penalties when they brought the final fence down and had to settle for fourth place.
Fifth spot went to Italy’s Piergiorgio Bucci on Casallo Z, who had 12 faults in the jump-off.
Sunday’s victory for Diniz in the Longines Grand Prix came after she also won Saturday’s feature class, the 1.50 Prize of the Hotel Les Trois Rois.
Twenty two of the 52 riders who started went on to the jump-off round after producing clear first rounds.
Riding the appropriately named Winningmood, Diniz then set an early target time of 32.27 seconds which turned out to be unbeatable.
Italy’s Bucci again provided a good challenge, for this time when riding Catwalk they came closest stopping the clock on 32.50 seconds, with Ukraine’s Katharina Offel riding Charlie taking third place.
On Friday, Germany’s Daniel Deusser took victory in Friday's class, the 1.55 Prize of LGT.
Riding Espyrante, the German rider produced one of fourteen clear rounds around the twisting first round track to move on to the jump-off.
Deusser was closely followed by home rider Romain Duguet on Quorida de Treho, who missed out on victory by 26 hundredths of a second.
Brazil's Zanotelli delivered another great round, this time on Malou to finish third.
There was some consolation for Zanotelli as he was awarded the honour of Leading Rider at the close of the show in the St. Jakobs Halle in Basel.
The Brazilian enjoyed a successful few days and topped the standings of the Prix de Vainquer with 931 points.
Belgium’s Wathelet was second best with 876 points, with Portugal’s Diniz taking third with 793 points, largely thanks to her superb victories on Saturday and Sunday.
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