Top Drivers Guarantee a thrilling Final in Geneva

The 2009/2010 season is hotly contested with the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Driving Final in Geneva to be held for the first time alongside the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final where the best six four-in-hand drivers will battle it out for the prestigious FEI World Cup™ title.

All odds are open
After an exciting season in which title defender Boyd Exell from Australia confirmed his role as top favourite in each competition, all odds are open for the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Driving Final. Exell was unbeatable in Hannover, Stuttgart and Budapest, but left the honours to home driver Tomas Eriksson in Stockholm. Runner up Koos de Ronde came second three times behind Exell but grew into the season and will be able to put some serious pressure on Exell. De Ronde won his last competition in Mechelen, where Exell came last competing with a wild card. In Leipzig it was Switzerland’s Daniel Würgler who beat the strong competition and took the first place, guaranteeing a starting ticket for the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Driving Final, as well as his compatriot Werner Ulrich who will be back in the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Driving Final after his absence last year. Wild card driver Thibault Coudry from France pleased the Bordeaux public by winning the last FEI World Cup™ Driving competition at the start of February. Since both home drivers Würgler and Ulrich have qualified for the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Driving Final in Geneva, there will be no wild card starts.

Spectacular move
Four times World Champion IJsbrand Chardon of The Netherlands made a spectacular move after his third place in the FEI World Cup™ competition in Stuttgart. Chardon realized he was unable to beat Exell with his current team and bought three Lipizzaner horses from his fellow competitor Jozsef Dobrovitz. He successfully competed with his new team at the FEI World Cup™ qualifiers in Mechelen and Leipzig, where he came second. Some bad luck at the last competition in Bordeaux made Chardon drop to the sixth place in the standings. In March, Chardon bought a fourth Lipizzaner horse from Dobrovitz to complete his grey indoor four-in-hand. The four times World Champion will put everything at stake to put the pressure on his fellow competitors in the Palexpo arena on 16^th and 17^th April.

The competitors in the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Driving Final are:
Boyd Exell (Australia, title defender). Winner CAI-W Hannover, CAI-W Stuttgart, CAI-W Budapest 2009
Koos de Ronde (the Netherlands). Winner CAI-W Mechelen 2009.
Daniël Würgler (Switzerland). Winner CAI-W Leipzig 2010.
Tomas Eriksson (Sweden). Winner CAI-W Stockholm 2009.
IJsbrand Chardon (the Netherlands).
Werner Ulrich (Switzerland).

Biographies
Visit www.feiworldcup.org section driving > biographies for the up to date biographies of the FEI World Cup™ Driving competitors.

The biographies include personal information as well as results from FEI World Cup™ Driving Qualifiers and Finals, World Championships and International Combined Driving Events. These very useful and up to date biographies also include information on the competitors’ horses with age, breed, sire, sexe and owner.

On www.feiworldcup.org you will furthermore find results, standings, news and photo galleries of the FEI World Cup™ Driving competitions.