US Drivers Achieve Overnight Goal at 2008 World Singles Driving Championship

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.