Leipzig 2024: Dropped balls cause big differences

The Germans did not have their best day today, despite the fact that they drove in front of their own audience. Wild Card participant Mareike Harm, Michael Brauchle and Georg von Stein suffered three dropped balls. This resulted in twelve extra seconds for the three of them on top of the time driven. They were therefore unable to qualify for the Drive-off.

Things didn’t go well for Bram Chardon tonight either. Halfway through the course he was only 0.17 seconds slower than Boyd Exell, who remained clear and had the fastest time. Unfortunately, he almost missed the A gate in obstacle nine, which brought him to a standstill for a while. Then later in the course a ball fell, and when he was on his way to gate twelve, he went over the bridge for the third time. He therefore had to make an extra circle to go through gate twelve. That took a lot of time. He therefore finished fifth tonight with a total of 184.22 seconds.

IJsbrand Chardon, Dries Degrieck and Wild Card participant Boyd Exell were selected for the Drive-off. Here gates 5E and 9D disappeared. IJsbrand started first. For him, a ball immediately fell at gate one, and then one of his horses hit the cone of gate eight when he was on his way from B to C in obstacle five. This caused the bell to sound and a pause so that the gate could be rebuilt. A total of 167.21 penalty points was the result of IJsbrand in the Drive-off.