Grade 1 title goes to Jacques Poppen
Dutch driver Jacques Poppen won his first World Para medals in 2006 and has consistently won team and individual medals since then. In Lähden he proved too hard to catch, especially after he only knocked one ball in the Cones for second on 3.00. His overall score of 128.95 gave him his fourth individual Grade 1 World Para Driving gold medal.
After thanking the Sandmanns for hosting the event, Jacques said, “I am very pleased that we Para Drivers are connected to the European Four-in-Hand event [held concurrently in Lähden] and I hope this formula will stay so that we are certain to have a World Championship every two years, because this has been uncertain for us. This gives us something to work towards for the next championship and hopefully we will have another beautiful event like here in Lähden in two years’ time.”
It wasn’t to be three-in-a-row for Californian based Tracy Bowman of the USA who tied in second place on 133.59 after the Marathon with The Netherlands’ Josien De Boer. Tracy was first in of the two, and although inside the time, she rolled three balls to add 9.00 to her score for 142.59. It gave Josien some leeway in her bid for a silver medal, but she incurred 21.25 penalties and slipped behind, totalling 154.84 for the bronze.
Germany’s Heiner Lehrter has won more medals in Para Driving than anyone and he showed his class in the Cones to have only one ball down in the fastest time to win the section. Jacques was second and Emily Ham of Great Britain took third with three balls for 9.00, but was within the time.
Australian driver Jodie Mckeone finished 12th with Zsolt Demkó’s part Lipizzaner Zeusz in the Championship. The pair were seventh in the Dressage (49.2), 14th in the Marathon (133.5), and 11th in the Cones (26.83) for a total of 209.53. Congratulations to Jodie for once again representing Australia on the world stage.
Alexandra Sievers claims Grade 2 title
No sooner had the 17 athletes in the Grade 1 class Cones finished, than it was straight into the Grade 2 class, with 10 forward. There was never any doubt that defending champion for Germany, Alexandra Sievers, would retain her crown, consolidated by a perfectly judged round with only 0.14 in time penalties. Decisively winning all three phases, as she did two years ago, she retained her title on 131.87. Dutch driver Hans Arends took silver with 148.03 after tallying 10.33 in the Cones ahead of compatriot Aad Van Marwijck, who was second in the final phase on 6.33 and took his bronze medal with 152.58. Gaining a third place in the Cones phase was Germany’s Torsten Roeder with 7.13.
In the nations’ event, The Netherlands team of Hans Arends, Josien De Boer and Jacques Poppen totalled 272.50 to take gold for the fifth time since the championship began in 1998. Germany was second on 297.23 and Great Britain was third on 326.45.
Full results can be found here.
You can re-watch all the action via ClipMyHorse.TV here.
Source: FEI press release by Sarah Dance (edited by EQ Life)
