Equestrianism: Weinberg's audacity proves conclusive

Helena Weinberg brought the Olympia Show Jumping Championships to a rousing conclusion last night when she rode a wonderfully audacious round on Ferdinand to win the closing Grand Prix. In the process she defeated Lars Nieberg on For Pleasure by 0.34sec and so deprived him of 360 bottles of Taittinger champagne.

This lavish reward (equalling the combined weight of Nieberg and his horse) was on offer to anyone who finished in the top five of Saturday's Volvo World Cup qualifier and then won last night's Grand Prix. Nieberg, who was fifth in the World Cup class, must have heard the corks popping until Weinberg spoilt his dream.

In former years, when she was Miss Dickinson, Weinberg jumped for Britain. Since then she has taken on her husband's nationality and last night she led a clean sweep for Germany, defeating Nieberg and his compatriot, Rene Tebbel on Radiator.

Geoff Billington, whose thrusting round on It's Otto had taken him into a short-lived lead eventually finished fourth - ahead of yet another German rider, Ludger Beerbaum, who was leading rider of the show, on PS Priamos.

Peter Charles, another former British rider, partnered the versatile nine-year-old French-bred mare, Dolly, to just about the fastest round that she has ever jumped when winning the earlier Christmas Hamper by a 1.2sec margin.

Charles, who has ridden Dolly for the last four years, was dropping the mare down a level when he won this speed competition for Ireland. "It was her last class of the year and everyone was trying their hardest, Dolly enjoyed it," Charles said, after defeating Di Lampard on Flaminka 004 and Rodrigo Pessoa on Loro Piana Wanda.

Since opting to abandon the Union Flag and don a green coat for Ireland in 1992, Charles has built up the best string of horses he has ever ridden. He still lives in England, but has not a single regret about deciding to represent the Irish side of his family. It has opened doors that seemed to be securely locked while he was trying to get into a British championship team.