Kecskemet, Hungary – Team USA is in fifth position in the Team standings after the dressage and marathon at the FEI World Pair Driving Championship in Kecskemét, Hungary. The Dutch are still in the lead, ahead of Hungary, Germany and Switzerland. Team USA is less than five points away from the bronze medal, and anything can happen in tomorrow’s deciding obstacle driving competition.

Keady Cadwell, Larry Poulin and Lisa Singer dropped one place in the Team standings after a heavy marathon. Keady Cadwell and Poulin took care of the team results by taking the 23rd and 24th place in the second phase of the combined driving competition. Individual driver Miranda Cadwell ended on the 36th place, Lisa Singer took the 46th position.

After dressage and marathon, Larry is in 10th position individually, followed by Keady Cadwell in 13th, Miranda Cadwell in 31st place and Singer in 35th in the strong field of 69 drivers and 17 teams.

It was a heavy marathon for the 69 pair drivers. The eight long and demanding obstacles followed each other without much time in between to recover, which made it extra heavy for the drivers and their horses. Dutch driver Harry Verstappen won the marathon phase with his pair of pinto Dutch warm loods, setting the fastest times in four obstacles. Hungarian favorite Zoltán Lázár came second, ahead of Klaus Tebbe, the individual competitor from Germany.

Zoltan Lázár, followed on less than one point by Harrie Verstappen and Switzerland’s Beat Schenk in third position, leads the individual standings after dressage and marathon.

Larry Poulin was the first American competitor on the marathon and he drove a very satisfactory round with the Hanoverian gelding Wiley owned by Natasha Grigg and the Morgan gelding Dusty owned by colleague pair driver Alan Aulson.

“It was my first marathon with this pair and they went absolutely fabulous. The horses kept well during the marathon and I am very pleased with my performance,” saild Poulin.

Poulin will compete at the National Championships in Kentucky this fall and will then retire from the driving sport as a competitor.

Keady Cadwell drove a good marathon with her pair of warm bloods, assisted by her trainer Boyd Exell as navigator. Lisa Singer was happily surprised when her home-bred Morgan cross Swedish warm blood mare Tilba reacted better than expected and kept going in the obstacles.

“I was afraid that she would come back in the obstacles,” said Cadwell. “But she was very brave and was not affected by the surroundings and the obstacles. It was a tough marathon, but I am happy with my horses.”

The marathon took place under extreme warm circumstances, which are not standard in Europe. Despite the high temperature, 30,000 spectators visited the event and witnessed beautiful driving sport with lots of ups and several down moments.

Winner of the dressage Mieke van Tergouw from The Netherlands had a corrected error of course in the first obstacle, which got her 20 penalty points and lost her chances to a good position after the marathon.

Defending World Champion Vilmos Lázár from Hungary fell off his carriage on his way to the finish of the second obstacle. Luckily, the navigator reacted adequately and grabbed the reins and the pair came to a stop. Both Vilmos and his navigator had minor injuries but will compete tomorrow. Vilmos completed the marathon after the incident and herewith secured his dressage score for the team result.

World Pair Champion 2005 Rainer Pointl took the wrong way in obstacle 7 and was eliminated. László Juhász jr., son of the 1984 World four-in-hand Champion László Juhász, withdrew in obstacle four after one of his horses got lame. The groom of Daniel Wütrich from Switzerland got injured falling off the carriage coming out of obstacle six. The man was taken to hospital but was released in the afternoon with minor injuries.

ENDS