Hungary For A First Medal

With Britain down to two out of three team drivers in challenging conditions, there’s no disgrace in fi nishing sixth behind a Hungarian debutant at this level

- Sarah Radford

HUNGARY’S dominance in the pairs was unchallenged, as they added an individual victory to a third consecutive team gold medal and smashed a record to boot.

On his world horse pairs championship debut, Martin Hölle topped the podium an impressive 10.05 penalties ahead of the experienced Sebastian Warneck, who was collecting his third silver medal for Germany. Switzerland’s Beat Schenk picked up bronze.

The 20-year-old Hungarian was collecting his first medal with horses, having previously won silver at this venue driving a single pony in 2015.

“I am very happy with my success because I don’t have much experience with horse pairs,” said Martin, who had managed to retain the advantage of his 35.57-penalty dressage score, which was a record-breaker for this pairs test.

While marathon weather conditions had been “near perfect” for the 80 starters, drivers faced a challenging cones day, with dramatic thunderstorms calling a 45-minute halt to proceedings.