New medals confirmed for Dressage Grand Prix SpecialThe Organising Committee of the2006 FEI World Equestrian Games have confirmed today that they agreed to implement the new FEI Dressage Rules (22nd edition, effective 1 January 2006) and award medals to the winner of the Grand Prix Special. According to the new article 445 of the FEI Dressage Rules, medals are awarded for all three competitions of FEI Senior Championships, i.e. the Grand Prix (Team Championship Competition) the Grand Prix Special (Individual Competition) and the Grand Prix Freestyle Test (Individual Competition). Introduced in 1991 at the European Championship in Donaueschingen (GER), the double individual medals were awarded once at the FEI World Equestrian Games in The Hague (NED) in 1994, before being discontinued, when the Grand Prix Freestyle became the individual final. The new 3 medal championship formula is slightly different from the former one. It adds more value and give more importance ot the Grand Prix Special,, which in the previous formula, was only the second qualifier for the Individual medal. The main change in the new 3 medal formula is the fact that the 30 best riders of the Grand Prix start from zero in the Grand Prix Special, and the 15 best riders from the Grand Prix Special start again with zero points in the Grand Prix Freestyle (Kür). The Dressage competition of the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games will take place according to the following schedule: - Dressage Grand Prix (Team medals) on 22 and 23 August - Grand Prix Special (best 30 riders from Grand Prix) on 25 August - Grand Prix Freestyle-Kür (best 15 riders from Grand Prix Special) on 26 August “We are delighted that the Aachen Organising Committee have accepted to implement the rule change already this year, and we do appreciate their efforts to make this possible in such a short time” stated Mariette Withages, Chairman of the FEI Dressage Committee”. “This will without doubt add excitement to this 2006 World Dressage Championship” she concluded.