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Articles: Press Release
US Drivers Achieve Overnight Goal at 2008 World Singles Driving
Championship
Contact:
United States Equestrian Federation, Inc.
4047 Iron Works Parkway
Lexington, KY 40511-8483
Tel: (859) 258-2472
Fax (859) 231-6662
Web site: www.usef.org
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 31, 2008
By Cindy Timmer for the USEF
Jarantow, Poland -- Team USA set their goal after yesterday's marathon
to improve their individual placing and team placing at the World
Driving Championship on the last competition day.
They succeeded!
The USA Team climbed to 11th place in the final team standings, thanks
to the very good results of the US drivers in the final and decisive
cones competition. The last competition turned out to be a thrilling and
exciting competition in which time was the deciding factor. Thousands of
carriage driving fans closely followed the competition on Sunday.
The most successful member of the US Team was Robin Groves who ended on
the 25th place in the individual standings. She drove Thor's Toy Truck
wonderfully through the cones course without touching a ball. The
fantastic 6th place in this competition made her and `the little one'
climb no less than 18 places in the individual ranking.
Leslie Berndl had two balls down and came 27th in the final standings of
the World Single Driving Championship 2008 with her Koopman's Lightning
Rod. After three days and good performance in the cones driving
competition, in which they only dropped one ball, William Peacock and
Beau are in 36th position in at the end of the three phases. Donna
Crookston came 50th with RG Cowboy's Black Cadillac in the competition
for the top single drivers of the world.
The 2008 World Singles Driving Champion is 68-year-old Dutch driver Jan
van den Broek, who drove a sensational dressage and stayed in the lead
throughout the whole competition. The silver medal went to Ann-Violaine
Brisou, who made up for her 2002 disaster when she was in the lead after
dressage and marathon and got eliminated in the cones competition at the
World Championship in Conty. The bronze medal went to Van den Broek's
compatriot Jan Moonen, who competed in Poland as individual driver for
the Netherlands.
The Team Gold medal went to France, ahead of Germany and Switzerland.
Ian Williams of the FEI emphasized the success of the World Single
Driving Championship in Poland: ``We can all go home to celebrate, not
only the medal winners, but all who experienced four days of wonderful
driving sport and fantastic horsemanship."
Team USA will soon start their long way home from Poland. The Team will
break up their camp on Monday morning and they have a stop in the Berlin
area. On Tuesday, the Team will check in to the Animal Hotel at Schiphol
Airport, Amsterdam, where they will board their flight on Wednesday
afternoon to New York. After a health check, all horses can head home to
their own stables.
ENDS
For more information, please contact Joanie Morris at jmorris@usef.org.
The vision of the United States Equestrian Federation(r) is to provide
leadership
for equestrian sport in the United States of America by promoting the
pursuit
of excellence from the grassroots to the Olympic Games, based on a
foundation of fair, safe competition and the welfare
of its human and equine athletes.
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