September 2, 2012 — Para-equestrian drivers took on the marathon course at the Outdoor Brabant Saturday morning and moved one step closer to team and individual World Para Equestrian Driving Championships for Singles titles. U.S. individuals have not cracked the top ten, but the team is in fourth place heading into the cones phase on Sunday.
Diane Kastama (Arroyo Grande, Calif.) drove the de Ronde’s KWPN Ruby R Van Stalle De Maurik to a 13th place finish in the Marathon. Her 102.15 point effort puts her in 14th place overall and makes her the highest placing American driver thus far. Diane’s total score is 159.55
Pam Johnson’s 114.86 point Marathon was good for a 19th place finish in the phase and kept her in 19th place overall. Driving Ben Honsbeek’s KWPN gelding Night, Johnson (Pleasant Hill, MO) is sitting on a total score of 181.46
The third member of the U.S. team, Karen Gorham (Burnet, Texas), retired on course during the marathon driving the Family De Bryne’s New Forest Pony Rozendaal’s Solomon.
Though most teams consist of three drivers, only two scores are counted toward team score after each phase. With a total score of 341.0 the U.S. team is behind Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place teams respectively.
The Netherland’s Jacques Poppen finished 2nd in the marathon, but maintains a slim lead over Germany’s Heiner Lehrter atop the individual standings.
The FEI World Para-Equestrian Driving Championships for Singles concludes Sunday with cones.
You can find results from the FEI World Para-Equestrian Driving Championships for Singles here.
The order-of-go for the cones phase is online here.
Follow U.S. Para-Equestrian teams here.
