6 augustus 2015

Piber: Italian drivers set the tone

The Italian drivers set the tone today at the international driving competition on the site of the Lipizzaner Stud Farm in Piber. Despite the very warm weather, the competitors enjoyed driving in the excellent sand arena, which was recently completely renewed as part of the preparations for the 2016 World Single Driving Championships.

Italy’s Cristiano Cividini drove the 10-year old Haflinger Aron L to victory in the pony singles class. Erich Pürstinger from Austria finished second with the stallion Steendieks Perfect Mind and is just 0,26 penalty points behind, which will mean an exciting battle in Saturday’s marathon. Rebecca Nick came third with the 10-year old German riding pony Dottoressa.

Jozsef Dibak conquered the third Italian first place in the horse pairs class. With the KWPN-geldings Carlos and Celviro he set a score of 42,59 and is 10 points ahead of Slovenian top driver Miha Tavcar. Andreas Ruschitzka put down a respectable test and is the best Austrian driver on the third place.

The dressage of the pony four-in-hand class was won by Günter Margelowsky from Germany with his team of Welsh ponies, ahead of Marco Perinotto from Italy and Maté Rohr from Hungary.

The two-star horse pairs class only counts two competitors, who drove the same test as the three-star competitors. Hungary’s Richárd Tapodi won with a score of 67,31, Damjan Scuka from Slovenia finished second with 72,68.
Tomorrow the horse singles and horse teams will enter the main arena in Piber for the dressage.

Click here for the starting orders and results.

Click here for the photos.

Another Italian victory in the pony pairs class where Johann Weitlaner drove his pair of nice looking Haflinger ponies to the first place. Karl Cvörnjek from Austria came second, ahead of Belgian driver Marc van der Speeten, who especially came to Piber to qualify for the upcoming World Championships in Breda.