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Federation
Equestre Internationale News
Gothenburg
closes FEI World Cup Driving season Sandmann aims for second
place
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The
Gothenburg Horse Show will host the last FEI World Cup Driving
event of this season. From 9 to 11 April, the Globen arena will
be the place where Germany¹s Christoph Sandmann will get
his last chance to climb in the standings. His compatriot Michael
Freund is certain of his third World Cup victory in a row and
will compete in Gothenburg with an extra wild card, which allows
him right to prize money, but no points. Sandmann is currently
in fourth position and will have to win or come second behind
Freund to climb up to the second place in the standings, which
is currently taken by Australia¹s Boyd Exell. Both Exell
and the number three in the rankings,
Gert Schrijvers from Belgium, have already finished their World
Cup season and will therefore not travel to Gothenburg. Freund
and Sandmann will have to compete against Rainer Duen, who has
proved in the past competitions that he is able to drive clear
and steady, as well as Switzerland¹s Werner Ulrich, Hungary¹s
Jozsef Bozsik and home drivers Tomas Eriksson and Fredrik Persson,
who also received a wild card from the organisation.
To
promote the World Singles Driving Championships in Åstorp,
which takes place later this year from 22 to 25 July, eight single
drivers will compete in the Globen Arena before the start of the
four-in-hand driving. Amongst them golden team medal winners in
2002, Cecilia Quarnström, Marie Kahrle and Anders Jönsson.
The
warm up competition will take place on Saturday, 10th April at
approx. 22.00 hrs. while the World Cup competition is scheduled
on Sunday, 11th April at approx. 18.00 hrs.
The
World Cup Driving as well as the highlights of the Gothenburg
Horse Show will be televised:
Sunday:
SVT 1 at 13.35 - 14.30 from Saturday evening
Sunday: SVT 24 at 19.30-20.30 from Sunday afternoon
Classification
after 7 of 8 events:
1. Michael Freund (Ger) 40
2. Boyd Exell (Aus) 27
3. Gert Schrijvers (Bel) 22
4. Christoph Sandmann (Ger) 19
5. Tomas Eriksson (Swe) 14
6. Ijsbrand Chardon (Ned) 14
7. Werner Ulrich (Sui) 13
8. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun) 13
9. Rainer Duen (Ger)10
10. Chester Weber (Usa) 5
Created
in 2001, the Driving World Cup has provided an innovative new
style of competition for indoor events, with courses combining
marathon and cone driving obstacles. The 2003/2004 season of the
World Cup includes seven events with eight competitions: Stuttgart
(GER), Stockholm (SWE), Mechelen (BEL) in 2003; Leipzig (GER),
two competitions in Vigo (ESP), 's-Hertogenbosch (NED) and Göteborg
(SWE) in 2004. The winner of the first two editions of the World
Cup was Michael Freund
(GER).
www.horsesport.org
.
