FEI World Singles Driving Championship

Britain veered to gold having taken home both the individual and team medals at the FEI World Singles Driving Championship held in the picturesque Pratoni del Vivaro (ITA) meadowlands from 21 – 24 September.

While 18 teams responded present, the 2006 FEI World Singles Driving Championship was earmarked for the British, with the three-strong team, composed of Di Hayes, David Matthews and Ian Bertram proving to be unbeatable on the day. The British team got off to a good start in the dressage to take third place behind Sweden and Germany. This was followed by extremely strong performances by Matthews and Bertram in the marathon, placing the British team in the lead. The lead was confirmed in the final cone driving phase, with a clear performance by Haynes, ensuring victory for the British team. In 2nd place came the all-female Swedish team followed by Germany in 3rd place.

T’was to be the same fate for the individual medals, which saw British driver, Paul Sidwell battle it out with 72 others riders, to finally take gold in the highly competitive individual title. Impressive performances in the first two phases ensured that Paul Sidwell took the gold medal driving Weirbank John. Sweden's Cecilia Qvarnström took an early lead after the dressage with just 33pen, but this lead was short lived after finishing 25th in the marathon and 35th in the cones, relegating her to a nonetheless, very admirable 2nd place. Third place was secured by Germany's Dieter Lauterbach.

Results

Team

1 GREAT BRITAIN (Ian BERTRAM, David MATTHEWS & Di HAYES)
2 SWEDEN (Cecilia QVARNSTRÖM, Lotta PALSSON & Marie KAHRLE)
3 GERMANY (Dieter LAUTERBACH, Reinhard BURGGRAF & Thorsten ZAREMBOWICZ)
4 FRANCE (Anne Violaine BRISOU, Benoit VERNAY & Michael SELLIER)
5 BELGIUM (André HERMAN, Marcel STASSEN & Danny HERPOEL)

Individual

1 Paul SIDWELL (GBR) & WEIRBANK JOHN
2 Cecilia QVARNSTRÖM (SWE) & SVELAND MARCO BAY
3 Dieter LAUTERBACH (GER)
4 Cristiano CIVIDINI (ITA) & PROMESYS
5 Anne Violaine BRISOU (FRA) & BOY DES COMBES


For more detailed results, please refer to the FEI website (Driving – Results).