Guerdat Completes the Set as Switzerland Wins Its First World Title

Steve Guerdat had won almost everything there was to win. Olympic gold in London in 2012. Three World Cup Finals. European gold in Milan in 2023. Olympic silver in Paris in 2024. The one thing missing was a World Championship, and no Swiss rider had ever taken that title in the sport's history. That changed on Sunday.

Dynamix de Belheme jumped clear in both rounds of the individual final to finish on 0.86 penalties, the score she carried in from the opening round of the week. Five clear rounds from five starts. Our model had the pair at 64% to win once round one was in the books, and nothing in the final two rounds gave the rest of the field a route back.

The mare has now won a medal at every championship she has started. European gold, Olympic silver, and a World Championship gold to go with them, all three alongside Guerdat. Rated 777 on Elo, she jumped like a horse that number would suggest. Guerdat is the first Swiss rider to be crowned World Champion.

Behind him, Belgium's Thibeau Spits took silver on Impress-K van't Kattenheye Z with 5.60 penalties, four penalties in the first round the only blemish on his card. Spits has been on Belgian teams every year since 2015, eight championships in eleven years, four of them team golds, a medal at every level he has passed through on the way up. At 25, individual silver at a Senior World Championship. The medal also capped a big week for Belgium, who took team silver on Friday.

Bronze went to Harry Charles, and his was the story of the championship for anyone not watching the top of the leaderboard. Charles sat 59th after day two on LT Holst Freda. By Sunday afternoon he was on the podium, a climb of 56 places. No medallist at the previous eight World Championships had ever come from lower than 17th after day two. Charles beat that mark by more than three times over.

A handful of stories further down the individual final are worth pulling out on their own.

Roberto Teran Tafur's fifth-place finish on Dez' Ooktoff was built on the back of an 18-year-old horse, a rarity at this level in any era. The gelding jumped a clear round on Sunday to move up from the pack and land inside the top five.

Omar Abdul Aziz Al Marzooqi had already delivered for the UAE before the final round started. Sitting 11th on Enjoy de la Mure going into Sunday, he had guaranteed the country's best individual finish at a World Championship, beating the 46th that had stood since 2002. A top-25 finish was already locked in regardless of how the last round went.

Marcus Ehning made his sixth final 25 of a World Championship on Coolio 42, finishing seventh. Few riders in the field carry that kind of championship pedigree into a final round, and it showed in how little fuss he made of two clear rounds under pressure during team competition.

Germany won the team title without much drama either. Marcus Ehning and Coolio 42 jumped two clear rounds, Daniel Deusser and Otello de Guldenboom did the same, while Sophie Hinners added just one penalty with Iron Dames Singclair. Richard Vogel and United Touch S picked up two time faults on Friday, but with that level of consistency across the team, it was never going to matter. Germany finished on 4.48 points, comfortably holding off Belgium by more than seven penalties.

Belgium took team silver on the strength of Abdel Saïd, who delivered the double clear they needed. Thibeau Spits and Nicola Philippaerts also came through with important clear rounds to keep the team in contention. Great Britain claimed bronze, highlighted by a standout double clear from Ben Maher and Point Break. The USA finished fourth, with Laura Kraut and Baloutinue proving the most consistent of their four combinations.

Ninth place was significant for Denmark, too. Finishing on 28.57, the team recorded its best-ever result at a World Championship. Zascha Nygaard, Laura Baaring Kjaergaard, Caroline Rehoff Pedersen and Andreas Schou all did their part to put Denmark ahead of the mark set at previous editions.

Teams ranked 1–10 completed both rounds of the final.