24 September 2017
Lipica: Martin Hölle and Hungary win gold
At the World Driving Championships for Pairs 2017 in Lipica, Martin Hölle won the gold medal with a safe round in the cones competition. Sebastian Warneck took home the silver, followed by Beat Schenk who won bronze. In the Nations ranking, Hungary defended the World Champion title. Germany came second and finally France won the battle for the bronze.Today the weather made it very difficult for the organization. After a dry early morning start, later on there was a big thunderstorm with heavy rain and it continued to rain for the rest of the day. The competition had to be stopped for 45 minutes. Despite the enormous amount of rain the competition went on and the drivers battled it out for the medals in a fair competition.
Martin Hölle (HUN) defended his leading position at the final day with a safely completed course in the cones and won the gold medal with about ten points in front of Sebastian Warneck (GER), who won the silver medal for the third time, after 2007 and 2013. Beat Schenk’s third place was a little surprise; it was his first medal since 2009. The organizers were happy because the Swiss driver did the marathon and cones driving with a Lipizzaner horse.
For the 20-year old Martin Hölle, this was the first medal with horses, but he took part in the 2011 Pony World Driving Championships in Lipica and in 2015, he won the silver medal in the World Driving Championships with a single pony: „I am very happy about my success, because I don’t have much experience with horse pairs.“
In the team competition, Hungary won the title the third time after 2013 and 2015, and sent Germany to the second place. France won the bronze with a bit more than 0.5 point in front of Switzerland.
With today’s cones driving, the Championships were finished with a lot of interesting driving sport on the highest level. In addition, it was a good promotion for the Lipica Stud Farm. The organizing committee did all they could to solve the problems caused by the bad weather, to give the drivers the best conditions.
For the General Manager of the Lipica Stud Farm, Lorela Dobrinja, this World Championships are a start of a new era in the sport.
Photo: Krisztina Horváth
