11 December 2021
Geneva: Good start for Bram Chardon
Bram Chardon has had a fantastic start in his first World Cup competition of the season. He won the first competition in Geneva this morning with two very fast and clear rounds. That gave him the ideal last starting place for tomorrow's competition.
Bram Chardon
Photo: Dirk Caremans
The huge arena in Geneva is special. With water and a small hill, the course brings extra spectacle. A speed box, two marathon obstacles and selectively arranged cones complete the course. Today all participants drove two rounds, with both results added together to determine the final ranking in the first competition.
Long course
For Bram Chardon it was his first participation of this season in the World Cup and it started off perfectly. He was the only one to be clear and had two super fast rounds. His team ran like clockwork and the horses worked well together. The Dutchman was very satisfied with his result. “The course is very long, so it was a good stamina test. We know there is always a long course build in Geneva, so I really trained it at home beforehand, including the speed box and the water.”
“The cones were nicely set up here. The two marathon obstacles were quite difficult and also both up to and including F. Usually you only drive the obstacles up to gate E. that made it extra long. It is a course that has everything, with the water and then the hill with gate 13.”
He is very satisfied with his horses. “Tomorrow I will drive with the same team. I have only been training with this team and we also drove Utrecht and Zwartewaal as preparation. I’m now going to analyze my drive and see if I need to take more risks at some points to get even more speed.”
Boyd Exell
Photo: Dirk Caremans
Favorite
Boyd Exell, who won the first two World Cup races this season, had to settle for second place today. In the first round he was clear, but not as fast as Bram. In the second he was a fraction faster than Bram, but in the last part of the course two ball fell down.
The third place went to Jérome Voutaz. The public went on the benches for the Swiss. In the first round he still had to get into his rhythm and two balls went off. In the second round he put things in order. He stayed clear and came close to Bram Chardon’s time with 159.47.
Belgian Dries Degrieck started with a clear first round, but in the second lap he came out of the water a bit too rough, causing gate 9 to drop. A second drop down made him fourth.
Place 5 was for the Hungarian József Dobrovitz and Michael Brauchle had to settle for last place. The German couldn’t get his team into the rhythm and made too many mistakes. Tomorrow is the decisive game for the World Cup points at 11.15 am. The route is then the same. The three best riders after the first round will then compete in a second round. The match will be broadcast live on FEI TV.
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Source photo: CSI de Genève
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