Sweden’s Tomas Eriksson has won the first leg of the FEI World Cup Driving 2005/2006 season at the German Classics Horse Show in Hannover. Hungarian drivers Zoltan Lazar and Jozsef Dobrovitz took place two and three in the crowded Messe Halle. Dutch driver Koos de Ronde, who competes in the series for the first time, came fourth, ahead of wild card driver Christoph Sandmann and the third Hungarian driver Jozsef Bozsik.

The six competitors offered the spectators an exciting competition in which the driving sport was shown at its best. Course designer Dr. Wolfgang Asendorf had made some changes to the course after the warm up competition in which many faults were made: “I made a mistake by designing the course too difficult. This caused many faults made by the drivers. I opened up the course today and this resulted in a more horse-friendly and less technical course,” comments Asendorf.

Tomas Eriksson was one of the drivers who did not complete the warm up competition faultless and the double World Champion was therefore very pleased with the changes: “I always use the first competition to test how strong my horses are. I knew what to change after Saturday’s competition and this turned out to be successful today. The adapted course very much suited my team and I am of course very happy with my first victory! “

Hungary was represented at its strongest in Hannover with vice World Champion Zoltan Lazar, Jozsef Dobrovitz and Jozsef Bozsik. Bozsik qualified for the FEI World Cup with his new team of chestnut Kisberi horses, but competed with a team of borrowed Lipizzaners in Hannover. The team visibly missed some experience and Bozsik admitted that he would have some work to do at home before his next competition. Lazar and Dobrovitz have undoubtedly proofed to be as strong indoors as outdoors and will be opponents to take into account at the future shows.

Wild card driver Christoph Sandmann used Hannover as a test event before his first start for points at the World Cup competition in Stuttgart: “We do not have any try-out events so I used this opportunity to test some horses. My team went better during the World Cup competition, but I still have some things to work on.”

Hannover was also the stage for the introduction of a new type of indoor marathon obstacle, designed by German course designer Falk Böhnisch, who has been involved as FEI World Cup course designer since the start of the series five years ago. «The posts of the triangles are made out of aluminium and connected with each other by lightweight wooden boards. The boards are cleverly connected to the posts and can be removed easily,” explains Böhnisch. “The triangles weigh no more than 10 kilos and are therefore very easy to handle in the hectic times of building an indoor course in a limited time space.”

The lightweight triangles however collapsed a bit too easily in Hannover, which caused precious waiting time for the competitors after they knocked one down. Asendorf commented that the obstacles would be further developed in order to prevent this in the future.

Results CAI-W Hannover:
1. Tomas Eriksson (Swe) 249,67
2. Zoltan Lazar (Hun) 264,71
3. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun) 269,77
4. Koos de Ronde (Ned) 137,79
5. Cristoph Sandmann (Ger) 144,71 (wild card)
6. Jozsef Bozsik (Hun) 176,48

Classification after 1 of 7 events:
1. Tomas Eriksson (Swe) 10
2. Zoltan Lazar (Hun) 7
3. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun) 5
4. Koos de Ronde (Ned) 3
5. Jozsef Bozsik (Hun) 2

At Hannover, Press Officer is Andreas Kerstan, Comtainment, phone: +49 4307 827970, fax +49 4307 827979, e-mail: info@kerstan.de Website: www.german-classics.com

The FEI World Cup Driving will be broadcasted on the German television channel NDR on Sunday, October 23rd in the programme «Hallo Niedersachsen « from 19.30-20.00 hrs.

The next FEI World Cup driving event takes place in Stuttgart, Germany, on 18 and 19 November 2005. Press Officer is Hartmut Binder, phone: +49 172 972 2848, e-mail: hartmut.binder@mps-agentur.de Website: www.stuttgart-german-masters.de

Created in 2001, the Driving World Cup has provided an innovative new style of competition for indoor events, with courses combining marathon and cone driving obstacles. The 2005/2006 season of the World Cup includes seven competitions: Hannover (GER), Stuttgart (GER), Stockholm (SWE), Geneva (SUI), Mechelen (BEL) in 2005; Leipzig (GER) and Göteborg (SWE) in 2006. The top 6 after 6 events will qualify for the 7th event in Göteborg.