4 juni 2016
Topolcianky: Heavy marathon
Today’s marathon in Topolcianky was a challenging one. Thunder and lightning tortured the venue at the start of the afternoon and the heavy rainfall made the footing in the obstacles very slippery. Obstacle two was taken out for the horse teams after the singles and the pairs had damaged it too much and it could not be repaired properly anymore. Hungary’s Lajos Moro won the marathon and has taken over the lead after Zoltán Lázár lost his groom in obstacle 6.The groom of Jozsef Dobrovitz was less fortunate in the same obstacle when he was launched as well and got injured. He was taken to hospital but was able to return to the Show Grounds without any serious injuries. Because of the accident, the event had to be stopped for a while until a new ambulance had arrived.
Jozsef Dobrovitz jr. Is currently in second position after a very strong performance in the marathon in which he finished second just 0,21 penalty points behind Moro. Lazar dropped to the third place and is ahead of the Nesvacil family, which is led by the eldest son Jiri jr.
Germany’s Ludwig Weinmayr also had some bad luck when one of his leader horses fell in the water obstacle. He was able to continue without any problems, but the same horse had a leg over the trace in the famous obstacle six and a groom had to go down. This incident and one knock down cost him four places in the ranking.
The Swiss drivers dominated the single horse class, led by Michael Barbey who has climbed up to the second place thanks to his victory. Dressage winner Leonhard Risch came second and is still in the lead. Austria’s Marisa Rössler is in third place at some distance.
Hungarian pair driver Zoltan Sipos won the marathon, ahead of Switzerland’s Beat Schenk and Hungary’s Jozsef Simon jr. Sebastian Warneck drove two pairs again today and finished 10th and 12th. He is still in the lead with 6 points advantage to Schenk.
The differences in the top ten are minimum, which will cause some excitement in the obstacle driving competition on Sunday.
