Bahrain Show Jumpers claim five podiums

Bahraini's Show Jumbers started their winter season claiming five podiums in the UAE National Show Jumping competition in Al Ain with Shaikh Hassan bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Khalid Hilal Al Khatri and Hamad Fakhrawi taking the event by storm from one day.

The Bahraini charge started on the first day when Al Khatri won the speed class where he left the field far behind riding the BDF owned Bashayer in a time of 62.87 seconds, Shaikh Isa (84.85) joined him on the podium in fifth place riding his own mare Zam Zam.

The dominance of the Bahraini riders continued on the final day when Fakhrawi (46.28) raced his new mare Saba to a fifth place podium spot finish in the two-phase final of the small tour competition.

Shaikh Hassan, the team captain saved the best for last as he was placed twice in the medium tour final riding his new mare HBR Radio Saint Clair to third place and finished fourth on his super star speed horse HBR Urano to complete a double podium finish for Bahrain in the two phase class. It was a very fast and highly contested competition where Shaikh Hassan finished the second jump off phase (24.60) and (24.64) as the Bahraini number one fought all the way but Olympic bronze medallist Khalid Al Eid narrowly out paced him by (0.48) and so did Olympian Mohammed Al Kumaiti by (0.44).

Shaikh Hassan said, “I am very proud of our achievement as a whole. All the riders represented the Kingdom in the very best way. We were all great ambassadors to our country and made the red and white flag proud. We have been training hard and this is a fantastic start to our winter season. It was a challenging competition and everyone stepped up.” Bahrain riders are preparing for big international shows in the region and chasing Longines World Ranking points and World Cup Qualifier points.