Top score for Christoph Sandmann in the obstacle driving competition

One could say the four-in-hand driver, Christoph Sandmann’s numbers came up in the lottery today.

The German Four-in-Hand Driving Champion claimed the victory in the “Hunt for the Points”, a cone driving competition, where the drivers can determine the course themselves. Each of the obstacles is allocated a certain amount of points, on top of that there is a joker, a particularly difficult obstacle, where the drivers can pick up 200 points if all goes well – or lose them if they make a mistake.

The joker in today’s class at the CHIO Aachen 2017 was an extremely narrow obstacle without cones, but instead poles on the floor. “I couldn’t even see them from up the driver’s box,” reported the winner, “so it was like playing the lottery.” And today Sandmann’s numbers came up. On a score of 1,900 points, he relegated the driver from the USA, Chester Weber, into second place (1,800 points). The Czech driver Jiri Nesvacil Jr. came third on a score of 1,790 points. Sandmann’s team colleague, Georg von Stein, followed him in fourth place (1,760).

Sandmann and von Stein are part of the same team in the Nations’ Cup, however the “Hunt for the Points” isn’t one of the competitions in that classification -it is an individual class. The Nations’ Cup continues tomorrow with the XXXL Pallen Marathon.