Martin Fuchs is under a lot of pressure at the World Cup show jumping competition in Basel on Sunday. If he fails to deliver, he risks missing out on the World Cup final in April in front of his home crowd.
12.01.2025, 04:30
12.01.2025, 08:22
SDA
The World Cup final at the end of the indoor season is the second most important championship of the year alongside the major event in the summer. And in 2025, it will be the other way around. The World Cup final will mutate into the most important event for the Swiss team, as it will take place in Basel at the beginning of April. The European Championships in Spain in the summer, on the other hand, will become less important because no Olympic tickets have yet been allocated.
As an exclusive event, the World Cup final only welcomes the world's best. Only 18 pairs from all the top European nations are admitted. The second tier of the local latitudes rarely or never manage to qualify, whereas the top ten in the world rankings plan the unofficial indoor world championships into their calendar. Steve Guerdat and Martin Fuchs, the numbers 2 and 5 in the rankings, have done the same.
But now Fuchs, of all people, who won the 1.87 million Swiss franc Grand Slam show jumping competition in Calgary last September and the top ten final in Geneva in mid-December with the best ten in the world rankings, has to worry.
Only five points collected
The man from Zurich only has a measly five points to his name, although he has already competed six times. Now the tournament in Basel marks the start of the final phase of qualifying. Fuchs, who is expected to saddle up Commissar Pezi on Sunday for the 330,000 Swiss franc competition, will be challenged at the beginning of the year. Two podium places are still to come. 20, 17 and 15 points are awarded for places 1 to 3 respectively. Experience shows that the cut-off for the top 18 is just under 40 points.
Fuchs' misery can primarily be explained by bad luck. Although he has spared his top horse Leone Jei with a view to Calgary and the possible jackpot at the Grand Slam show jumping in Geneva, his riding should be enough to qualify for the World Cup even without the number 1. But zero-fault rides also need a bit of luck from time to time. The 32-year-old has lacked this in the World Cup events so far.
Fuchs has the advantage that, as a top ten rider, he is admitted to every World Cup competition - so after Basel, he will also be competing in Leipzig, Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Gothenburg. The other Swiss pairs will have to share the third Swiss starting place, hoping for a wild card or a withdrawal by Fuchs or Guerdat.
A trio on course
In contrast to his colleague, Olympic silver medallist Guerdat has scored regularly. With 36 points already, nothing should really go wrong for the man from the Jura. Things are also looking promising for Edouard Schmitz and Géraldine Straumann. The man from Geneva in the saddle on Quno and the woman from Basel with Long John Silver have made the most of their few chances. With 29 and 22 points respectively, an entry into the jump-off in Basel should be half the battle for the World Cup Final at the same venue. Even if it's not quite enough, the duo will be favored by team boss Peter van der Waaij at the end, as Alain Jufer (10 points) and Pius Schwizer (8) currently have the worse cards.
