Lexington, KY - The 12 horses of the four American competitors at the FEI World Pair Driving Championship in Kecskemet, Hungary, passed the horse inspection this morning without problems. The horses of Keady Cadwell, Miranda Cadwell, Larry Poulin and Lisa Singer were presented to the veterinarians and judges.

Chef d’equipe Ed Young, team trainer Koos de Ronde from The Netherlands and team veterinarian Meg Mullin complete the team.

The Cadwells, Poulin and Singer have all been part of the U.S. squad at the championships before, including the last one held in Poland, and they hope to improve the 7th place they took in 2007.

Poulin is celebrating a milestone in Kecskemet, as he will represent the U.S. at a World Pair Driving Championship for the 10th time in his career. For Singer, it is the 7th time that she is a member of the U.S. squad.

After Gladstone in 1993 and Warka in 2007, Keady Cadwell is again on the team in Hungary. Her younger sister, Miranda, has swapped her pony pair she successfully competed with at the FEI World Pony Driving Championships in Greven-Bockholt, Germany, last week for a horse pair to compete in her first FEI World Pair Driving Championship. Miranda will compete as an individual for the U.S. in Kecskemet.

Seventy-one drivers from 21 nations will compete in the championship. Eighteen nations’ teams will battle for the team medals. Kecskemet, 56 miles from the capital city, Budapest, hosted three FEI World Championships before (the 1978 and 2004 FEI World Four-in-Hand Championships and the 1999 World Pair Championship).

Reigning World Pair Champion Vilmos Lazar, who also won the Gold medal in 1999 in Kecskemet and 2001 in Riesenbeck, will be part of the Hungarian team that defends its Silver medal. The 2007 Silver Individual medalist Sebastian Warneck made a large contribution to the German Team Gold in 2007 and will also be part of the team again in Kecskemet. Hungary’s Karoly Hodi won the Bronze Individual medal two years ago, but will not be present in Kecskemet this year.

Austria’s Christian Iseli, who was also responsible for the course at the FEI World Pair Driving Championship in Svettl in 1991 and Poznan 1995, the 2004 FEI World Four-in-Hand Championship in Kecskemet and the FEI World Single Driving Championships 2006 and 2008, is once again responsible for the course design in Kecskemet.

The jury is chaired by Diana Brownlie from Great Britain and is completed by Peter Bonhof from The Netherlands, Dr. Klaus Christ from Germany, Marsoe Larose from Canada and Jozsef Borka from Hungary.


ENDS