THE 11 nations who failed to make the cut following the opening round of the Furusiyya Nations Cup final last Thursday in Barcelona, battled amongst each other for the Longines challenge cup last Friday night, along with an impressive €300,000 prize-fund.

At the finish, Qatar won another thrilling competition, which was a cliff-hanger to the very end.

The winners finished on a nine-fault scoreline while Australia, Brazil and France shared second place when all three sides posted a total of 12 each. Once again the one-round format produced a class filled with unpredictability, the result eventually decided by the very last horse-and-rider combination into the arena.

An Egyptian side who had Ireland’s Joanne-Sloan Allen as chef d’equipe, shared fifth place along with the much more experienced Italian side when both finished on 13 faults.

Qatar and Brazil battled it out in the closing stages. Third-last to go, Bassem Hassan Mohammed produced a pivotal anchorman clear that ensured Sheikh Ali’s 19 faults could be dropped and leaving Qatar on a finishing total of nine faults.

Last to go for Brazil, Marlon Modolo Zanotelli could afford one fence down with Rock ‘n Roll Semilly but they finished with eight faults to leave Qatar as winners, while the Brazilians had to settle for runner-up spot alongside the French and Australians.

The man who clinched victory for his country, Bassem Hassan Mohammed, described his side’s success as “a big day of history for Qatar and I’m really happy for this! I don’t think anything could be better than this moment!” he said afterwards.