Eleventh Season Of The FEI World CupT Driving Attracts World Class Field

After an exciting outdoor season with the FEI Open European Driving Championships for Four-in-Hand in Breda (NED) as its highlight, the sport of four-in-hand Driving moves indoors for the 11th season of the FEI World CupT Driving.

Ten top class drivers will battle it out for the ultimate title of FEI World CupT Driving champion. Germany, who was absent from the series for the past two seasons, is making a significant comeback and will now be represented by two drivers, Rainer Duen and Georg von Stein.

New comer

The qualification season consisted of 14 competitions held throughout Europe with the top 10 drivers qualifying for the 2011-2012 season. Amongst these, there is one new comer: Georg von Stein from Germany. Von Stein competed as a wild card in the FEI World CupT Driving Final 2011 in Leipzig where he finished sixth.

Von Stein's compatriot Rainer Duen joined the FEI World CupT Driving at the last minute after Chester Weber (USA) who was in second place on the outdoor season standings, decided not to compete. Duen competed in the 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 seasons and is looking forward the new challenge.

Three-time FEI World CupT Driving champion Boyd Exell of Australia will aim for his fourth title this season but can expect strong competition from the runners up in the 2010/2011 Final Jozsef Dobrovitz (HUN) and IJsbrand Chardon (NED) as well as from Koos de Ronde (NED), Zoltan Lazar (HUN), Werner Ulrich (SUI), Theo Timmerman (NED), and Tomas Eriksson (SWE) all of whom have competed series before.

FEI World CupT Driving 2011-2012

The 11th season of the FEI World CupT Driving series is made up of seven competitions in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary and Belgium. Five drivers from the 10 qualified for the season will compete at each event; organisers may give wild cards. Wild card drivers cannot earn World Cup points.

The rules

The season consist of seven qualifiers (CAI-Ws) and a Final.

Ten four-in-hand drivers have qualified for the 11th season of the FEI World CupT Driving 2011-2012.

The top five drivers will compete in four events of which the best three results count.

The top six to ten drivers will compete in three events of which all results count.

Drivers earn points for their placing at each event.

The Final is open to the top six drivers of the standings after the seventh event (CAI-W Leipzig).

At each event, the Organiser may award one or two wild cards. However, the wild card(s) driver(s) cannot earn points counting towards the standings of the series.

Each FEI World CupT Driving qualifier consists of two competitions. The starting order in the first competition is decided by a draw. The starting order in the second competition - the FEI World CupT Driving - is in reverse order of merit from the first competition.

The FEI World CupT Driving courses consist of marathon type obstacles, a bridge, and eight to 12 cone-type obstacles. The course must be driven in the correct order and as fast as possible. Every knock down (ball or element) will cause five penalty seconds to be added to the time of the competitor.

New format for the Final

In the Final, the starting order for Competition 1 is in reverse order of the standings after Phase 1. Fifty percent (50%) of the score from Competition 1 (converted into seconds) will be carried forward by the driver into Competition 2. Scores from Competition 2 will be carried forward by the qualified drivers into the drive off.

The complete rules for the FEI World CupT Driving 2011/2012 are available at this LINK.

FEI World CupT Driving 2011-2012: final qualification standings

1 Boyd Exell AUS 90

2 Chester Weber USA 80

3 Ijsbrand Chardon NED 78

4 Koos de Ronde NED 68

5 Jozsef Dobrovitz HUN 66

5 Zoltan Lazar HUN 66

7 Werner Ulrich SUI 58

8 Theo Timmerman NED 55

9 Tomas Eriksson SWE 53

10 Georg von Stein GER 50

11 Rainer Duen GER 49

Calendar and participation:

Hannover (GER) 20-23 October 2011:

IJsbrand Chardon (NED)

Jozsef Dobrovitz (HUN)

Tomas Eriksson (SWE)

Rainer Duen (GER)

Koos de Ronde (NED)

Stuttgart (GER) 16-21 November 2011:

Koos de Ronde (NED)

Zoltan Lazar (HUN)

Theo Timmerman (NED)

Georg von Stein (GER)

IJsbrand Chardon (NED)

Stockholm (SWE) 25-27 November 2011:

Boyd Exell (AUS)

Werner Ulrich (SUI)

Jozsef Dobrovitz (HUN)

IJsbrand Chardon (NED)

Rainer Duen (GER)

Budapest (HUN) 2-4 December 2011:

Boyd Exell (AUS)

Werner Ulrich (SUI)

Koos de Ronde (NED)

Jozsef Dobrovitz (HUN)

Zoltan Lazar (HUN)

Geneva (SUI) 8-11 December 2011:

Koos de Ronde (NED)

Zoltan Lazar (HUN)

Werner Ulrich (SUI)

Theo Timmerman (NED)

Boyd Exell (AUS)

Mechelen (BEL) 26-30 December 2011:

IJsbrand Chardon (NED)

Jozsef Dobrovitz (HUN)

Tomas Eriksson (SWE)

Georg von Stein (GER)

Boyd Exell (AUS)

Leipizg (GER) 19-22 January 2012:

Zoltan Lazar (HUN)

Theo Timmerman (NED)

Tomas Eriksson (SWE)

Georg von Stein (GER)

Rainer Duen (GER)

Comprehensive information on the FEI World CupT Driving, including updated drivers' biographies, the history of the series, and the list of champions is available in this PRESS KIT and on the FEI WEBSITE.

For more information, contact +41 78 750 61 42

As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatimtexts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-relatedorganizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.

These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.

Your complete source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only.