Totally happy the German crowd"s favourite Michael Freund left the arena of
the Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart after magnificently winning the
second leg of the FEI World Cup Driving...
After a period of troubles, amongst which the pending doping case, Freund received a standing ovation from the super enthusiastic crowd for winning the driving competition in Stuttgart for the eleventh time in a row, of which four World Cups.
"I feel very much at home in Stuttgart, and the spectators are super here. Although it didn"t go so well for me in the warming up competition, I proved today that I am also able to win in a technical course," explains Freund.
Australia"s Boyd Exell, competing with three horses of Freund"s 2003/2004 indoor team, drove
his horses short and beautifully through the obstacles, which resulted in a fast time and the second place.
Since Freund received the wild card, he was not entitled to points so Exell has therefore received 10 World Cup points.
Switzerland"s Werner Ulrich also drove a profitable competition. His team is in its fourth World Cup season and has found the necessary routine. The 1998 Wold Champion drove his team of Swiss horses to the third place.
Jozsef Dobrovitz just missed the qualification for the winning round, which was driven over a shortened course. The sympathetic Hungarian drove a clear round, but passed the finishline two seconds too slow: "It is going much better than in my first season, but I still need to learn more."
Chester Weber had, in contrary to the warming up round, carefully studied the course, but this could not prevent him from knocking four balls down in the technical course, designed by Falk Böhnisch. With his current indoor team with the leader horses borrowed from Swiss four-in-hand driver Stefan Kläy, he will try to make up for his results so far in Stockholm.
World Cup debutant Zoltan Lazar admitted that he still has much to learn, but considering the fact that the Hungarian pair World Champion only started driving a team in March this year, he was satisfied with his sixth place.
Second wild card driver Hansjörg Hammann encountered some difficulties in the course, but promised that he would keep on driving as long as would be invited by the Stuttgart organisation to compete with a wild card.
The next FEI World Cup driving event takes place in Stockholm, Sweden, on 26 and 27 November 2004.
Results CAI-W Stuttgart:
1. Michael Freund (Ger)
2. Boyd Exell (Aus)
3. Werner Ulrich (Sui)
4. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun)
5. Chester Weber (Usa)
6. Zoltan Lazar (Hun)
7. Hansjörg Hammann (Ger)
Classification after 2 of 7 events:
1. Ysbrand Chardon (Ned) 10
1. Boyd Exell (Aus) 10
3. Michael Freund (Ger) 7
3. Werner Ulrich (Sui) 7
5. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun) 5
