Bram Chardon tied with Boyd Exell in the World Cup standings

Jérôme Voutaz and Koos de Ronde made too many mistakes in the drive off. Glenn Geerts had the bad luck of the evening, he missed the drive off by a hair’s breadth. His time fell just under half a second short and he finished fourth. His clear round was by the book and good for the lead at that time. The joy was great, fueled by the home crowd. He jumped up with joy immediately after the finish, but was thrown from the carriage. Fortunately, groom Rodrigo Verstraeten grabbed the reins and the horses were under control quickly Luckily Glenn wasn’t hurt. But shortly after his fantastic ride he was trumped by Koos de Ronde, Bram Chardon and last starter Jérôme Voutaz.

There were many clear rounds in the first round, but it was different in the drive off. The three finalists took a lot of risks and that resulted in mistakes at speed. Jérome Voutaz immediately knocked over a cone at gate 1 and tapped a ball off in a marathon obstacle. His final time was 143.49 and that was considerably less than in his first round. That gave Koos de Ronde opportunities, but he also tapped a ball at gate 1. Then two more fell and he never reached the same speed as the Swiss. Koos came in third. Thus Bram Chardon could take it relatively easy, but he didn’t. Today he had replaced the dark gray Maestoso XIVII5-13-3 with the experienced paint Casper. He flew through the course and only tapped a ball at the last gate. With 135.25 he was by far the big winner.