Nails were bitten to the quick at Olympia this afternoon, as British show jumper Guy Williams raced to first place in the jump off of the Christmas Cracker, amidst cheers and applause from an increasingly excited crowd.

In the money

Earlier today, Guy won 7,100Euro in the Accumulator and his second win this afternoon with his own Torinto van de Middlestede has netted him a further 25,000Euro. A very successful day for the Canterbury based show jumper.

Simon Delestre led the field for most of the competition with a time of 36.19 seconds. Simon eventually finished sixth, after the Netherland's Marc Houtzager took a brave short line after fence 5b to shave almost a second off the leading time and coming in at 35.25. It was good enough to put him in second place. Ben Maher attempted the same line later in the competition, but found himself almost on top of the greenery by fence four, costing him valuable seconds and drawing a sharp intake of breath from the crowd. 

Third went to Britain's Peter Charles and Olga White's nine-year-old chestnut stallion Murka's Nevada. The stallion pleased the crowd with expressive changes and a few bucks along the way. The combination came in third on 35.75 seconds. 

Fourth was Sweden's Rolf-Goran Bengtsson with Ninja La Silla. The combination came home at 35.59 seconds. 

Winner takes it all

H&C caught up with Guy after the prize giving, at which he showed the crowd the horse's speed as he left the arena. 

Guy was last to ride, and one would assume the pressure was on. "No, I know the horse - its a winner," Guy said. "Today, we jumped good"

To most, two wins in a day is spectacular, but Guy has higher hopes. "Two wins in a day is good but I had three wins in a day at Geneva so I know I can do it. I have four horses here, including a Puissance horse for tonight who's won in Geneva too. There's no pressure now I've won a few quid."

In his closing remark, Guy tells us his plans for the rest of Olympia 2010: "To win more classes."

And we think he just might do it.