Canadian Olympic gold medalist Eric Lamaze of Montreal, Quebec won the 2019 Royal Bank of Canada Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows, south of Calgary. Alberta on Saturday. For Lamaze, who is currently battling a brain tumour, won in a jump off, after going perfect in each of his two rounds. It was third time Lamaze has won the RBC Grand Prix, as he previously won in 2008 and 2010.
Lamaze, who won a gold medal in equestrian at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, was one of seven equestrian riders in Saturday’s competition to have a perfect first round of zero faults. He was joined by Steve Guerdat of Switzerland (currently ranked first in the world), Beezie Madden of the United States (top ranked female equestrian rider in the world), three equestrian riders from Ireland (Conor Swail, Jordan Coyle and Brian Cournane) and rising Canadian rider Nicole Walker of Aurora, Ontario.
In the jumpoff, Lamaze was one of three riders to go clean again, as Madden, Walker and Coyle had four faults and Cournane had 12 faults. Of the three riders who went clean in the jumpoff, Lamaze had the fastest time of 46.25 seconds. Guerdat was second with 46.96 seconds and Swail was third with 47.2 seconds. Madden had a faster time than Lamaze at 44.62 seconds, but had the rail in her final jump fall.
