Michael Freund made driving history this weekend when he won the FEI World Cup Driving Final for the fifth time. The result marked a spectacular end to the German champion’s career.
More than 8000 spectators attended the World Cup final in Gothenburg, Sweden. Course designer Dan Henriksson’s challenging track was a test of both technique and speed and saw Michael Freund, Christoph Sandmann and defending champion Ijsbrand Chardon qualifying for the winning round. But there was to be no stopping Freund. In an exciting finish he crossed the line 0.6 sec ahead of Ijsbrand Chardon.
Freund drove a perfect clear round, but was concentrating so hard that it was only when he looked at the final scoreboard that he realised how close the competition was. “The results of my fellow competitors were so close together that I realised that I could not make any mistakes,” he said afterwards.
Results FEI World Cup Driving Final 2006/2007
1. Michael Freund (Ger) 225.29
2. Ijsbrand Chardon (Ned) 225.86
3. Christoph Sandmann (Ger) 227.01
4. Koos de Ronde (Ned) 116.82
5. Tomas Eriksson (Swe) 118.48
6. Jozsef Dobrovitz (Hun) 134.26
FEI World Cup Driving Champions 2002-2006:
2002: Michael Freund (Ger)
2003: Michael Freund (Ger)
2004: Michael Freund (Ger)
2005: Michael Freund (Ger) and Ijsbrand Chardon (Ned)
2006: Ijsbrand Chardon (Ned)
2007: Michael Freund (Ger)
