In the Christmas Arena at Jumping Mechelen, the FEI Driving World Cup got underway with the international four-in-hand cones class. In this opening competition, everything revolved around a tight, fast run between the cones, with little margin for error and a podium immediately shared by the Netherlands and Belgium.
The victory went to Bram Chardon, who made the difference in the drive-off and ultimately recorded a winning time of 130.89 seconds. In the first round he finished on 145.05 seconds with four penalties, but in the decisive round he produced a faultless, sharp performance and improved his time to 130.89, securing the win.
Dries Degrieck took second place to keep Belgium firmly in the top two. Degrieck posted 147.45 seconds in the first round with four penalties and went on to 132.83 seconds in the drive-off, again with four penalties, which left him narrowly behind Chardon.
Koos de Ronde completed the podium in third place. He stayed faultless in the first round and stopped the clock at 148.37 seconds, before recording 131.80 seconds in the drive-off while picking up eight penalties, which ultimately earned him third.
