Victory for Team Maccabi United in the MLSJ Team Competition

Team Maccabi United reigned victorious at the Coachella Cup! On Friday evening, Mark Bluman, Daniel Bluman, and Uma O'Neill secured the win in the $200,000 1.50m Major League Showjumping FEI5* Team Competition.

Alex Matz, Callie Schott, and Nicola Philippaerts from the Archers team finished second. Rene Dittmer, Richard Vogel, and Michael Duffy from Team Helios finished third.

Victory for Maccabi United in the MLSJ Team Competition

After a thrilling first round, the top four teams qualified for the first jump-off: Maccabi United, the Archers team, Team Helios, and the Northern Lights team consisting of Kyle Timm, Nina Mallevaey, and Jessica Springsteen. Two riders from each of the four teams competed in the first jump-off. Mark Bluman and Phelina de Septon, as well as Uma O'Neil with Luigi d'Eclipse from Team Maccabi United, both were clear, and Alex Matz with Junior Kannen and Callie Schott with Garant from Team Archers also jumped clear.

Team Helios' Michael Duffy and BE Sky Hawk had one knockdown, while Rene Dittmer and Cody were clear. Kyle Timm and Glabmour du Chanu from the Northern Lights team finished the course with 8 penalty points; Nina Mallevaey and Nikka vd Bisschop jumped clear.

Exciting final jump-off: Timed jumping helped Daniel Bluman to victory for Maccabi United

In the medal jump-off, Maccabi United competed against the Archers for victory and Team Helios against the Northern Lights for third place. The third pair in each team, which did not compete in the first jump-off, now decided the podium places: Daniel Bluman rode Hummer Z for Team Maccabi United, and Nicola Philippaerts rode H&M Que Sera for Team Archers. It was a particularly riveting part of the competition because this final jump-off was held as a speed jumping competition: knockdowns were converted into time penalty points of 3 seconds each. And this is exactly what helped Team Maccabi United to victory. Despite a fault, Daniel Bluman and Hummer Z secured the victory for their team by being more than 7 seconds faster than Nicola Philippaerts from Team Archers.

Both Richard Vogel with Con Quality from Team Helios and Jessica Springsteen with Cayman de Poteau Z from Team Northern Lights remained faultless in the jump-off for third place, but Richard Vogel and Con Quality ultimately prevailed with the faster time – securing third place for his team.

The entire competition can be viewed in the ClipMyHorse.TV media library. Click HERE for the Coachella Cup.

Click HERE for the complete list of results.