CAIRO, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Longines Global Champions Tour, an international show jumping series featuring elite horse-and-rider combinations, kicked off Thursday at Egypt's Pyramids of Giza.
The three-day event, officially known as the Longines Global Champions Tour of Cairo and founded by Qatar's Years of Culture, runs from Oct. 22 to 24, marking the tour's debut at the iconic archaeological site.
The event offers a total prize purse of 1.75 million euros (about 2.03 million U.S. dollars), including 1 million euros for Saturday's Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Cairo, according to organizers.
The program features individual show jumping classes and the Global Champions League, a team competition. Friday's schedule includes further competitions ahead of Saturday's headline Grand Prix, featuring a 1.60-meter course.
Omar Mamdouh Ismail, a board member of the Egyptian Equestrian Federation and former equestrian athlete, described the competition as a major achievement for Egyptian equestrian sport.
"For me, this is a dream come true: to see the world's top riders competing in Egypt," Ismail told Xinhua, crediting the Egyptian Equestrian Federation's leadership and the efforts behind the scenes for helping overcome the obstacles to hosting the event.
He said he hoped the competition would pave the way for more international equestrian events in Egypt, adding that it was being held under a five-year agreement and was expected to return annually. ■
