8 September 2024
World Championship Svilvásvárad: Record Breaking Gold medals for Boyd Exell and The Netherlands
On the final day of the World Championship for Four-in-Hand, one question was clear right after the first start: who will match or beat Jérôme Voutaz in the cones? The Swiss driver, who was eliminated yesterday because he turned over in the second obstacle, did start this morning in the cones and he drove the much-desired ‘double zero’: clear and within time.Jérôme was the man to beat in this section and for a long time nobody managed to do so. Until the second block of drivers, only Benjamin Aillaud and Koos de Ronde had a small time penalty and IJsbrand Chardon drove within time, but at the cost of one ball. Hungarian József Dobrovitz (sr) did not hide his enthusiasm for his performance (5.39 penalty points) as well as his delight at competing in his homeland. Jumping on his carriages, cheering and waving to the stands, he thanked his horses, the organisation and the audience for this fantastic event.
Back to the competition: the bridge proved to be strange to some leaders, and sometimes antics were performed to cross the bridge without dropping a ball. Time pressure regularly started to get to the drivers from the wave at 17 and the zigzag at 19, but gate 20 also costed some drivers three precious penalty points.
Koos de Ronde
Photo: Nanda van der Burgt
Gold for the Netherlands!
Fredrik Persson was the first driver who managed to match Jérôme Voutaz’s performance: clear and within time, but the Swiss rider turned out to have driven a few seconds faster. Then things got very exciting; Georg von Stein seemed to be on course for gold in the cones for a very long time. A small disturbance in the rhythm in the wave caused a loss of concentration and in the end two balls fell anyway. Bram Chardon did everything right: a good fast rhythm, focus and even the fault on the bridge did not take him and his horses out of focus in the rest of the course. He stayed clear, was just under two seconds faster than Jérôme and thus put himself definitively on the podium in the individual ranking and the Netherlands on gold!
Chester Weber was obviously keen to keep at least his silver starting position. He rode a fantastic course within the time allowed, but in the last zigzag he couldn’t drive his desired line and that cost him two balls, allowing Bram to pass him in the standings.
Photo: Martin Dokoupil
Boyd Exell: More ambition than individual gold
Last drive Boyd had a huge lead to defend, so individual gold could hardly escape him. However, Boyd had more ambition: a medal for Australia. His cones course was not perfect (one ball fell, but he stayed within time), but he prolonged his title and is World Champion 2024. Bram Chardon has silver and Chester Weber goes home with an honourable bronze medal. Partly due to the performance of country and teammate Tor Van Den Berge, both drivers won a team medal for the first time: bronze for Australia. In the final standings, no individual medals for the German riders, but Germany, thanks to the fantastic performances of Michael Brauchle, Georg von Stein and Mareike Harm, took silver in this World Championships. A special mention for 28-year-old Anna Sandmann: an up-and-coming talent for the German team.
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World Champion 2024: Boyd Exell & Chester Weber
Photo: Martin Dokoupil
