IRELAND'S Denis Lynch held onto first place at Rio de Janeiro's Global Champions' Tour Grand Prix tonight (Saturday) until the closing moments of the competition when last man in, Germany's Marcus Ehning, shaved a quarter of a second off his time and took the 100,000 euro first prize.

Tipperary-born Lynch, riding Thomas Straumann's 11 year-old gelding 'All Inclusive NRW', was second to go of seven riders who made it through to the jump-off at Rio, and set a blazingly fast time of 33.50 seconds. Germany's Philipp Weishaupt and Britain's Ellen Whitaker both had a fence down in the final round, and the three remaining riders went clear but failed to equal the Irishman's time.

However Marcus Ehning, who was also bidding for the overall Global Champions' Tour title, pushed the bay mare 'Noltes Küchengirl' across the line on a zero score and a time of 33.23 to snatch the winner's title from Lynch, who settled for the 70,000 euro runner-up prize.

Ireland's other contender for tonight's Grand Prix title, Billy Twomey, retired Sue Davies's bay stallion 'Je t'Aime Flamenco' in the first round.

Ehning was confirmed as the 2010 Global Champions' Tour winner, with fellow-countryman Marco Kutscher in second place. Ireland's Jessica Kurten, who did not compete at Rio this weekend, took fifth place on the final leaderboard, based upon her performances in the eight previous legs of the series.

Marcus Ehning's total winnings tonight totalled 417,000 euro from his Grand prix first place and his Global Champions' Tour title.

Denis Lynch