FEI World Equestrian Games Aachen 2006:
The sporting reply to Athens - Bettina Hoy on the eventing team - Great demand for tickets


It is intended to serve as the sporting reply to the 2004 Olympic Games: The German eventing squad is competing at the World Equestrian Games Aachen 2006 (August 20th - September 3rd) with more or less the same riders that were stripped of their gold medals by the green table decision in Athens. Bettina Hoy had caused a stir, because she crossed the starting line twice by mistake. "This will add even further suspense to the competitions that are exciting enough anyway," says Michael Mronz, member and spokesman of the WEG OC. The Commission of the DOKR (German Olympic Equestrian Committee) announced the nomination of Bettina Hoy, Ingrid Klimke, Hinrich Romeike, Andreas Dibowski, Frank Ostholt and Dirk Schrade after the German National Championships at the weekend.

"As a result of the high demand for tickets for the WEG, we have relocated the final jumping competition of the eventing into our main stadium," says Mronz. Over 40,000 spectators will now be able to enjoy the competition live on Sunday, August 27th. The dressage will be held previously to this in Stadium 2 (August 24th-25th), the route for the cross-country course (August 26th) is situated only a few metres away and spans over the fields of the Aachen Soers. This means that for the first time in the history of the World Equestrian Games, the competition sites are so centrally located and lie that close together that the competitors and the spectators can reach them all on foot. Tickets can be ordered from the telephone hotline on +49-(0)241-917-1111. All information on the competitions is also available online at www.aachen2006.de.

At the eventing test in Aachen last year Bettina Hoy herself announced: "We want to give our sporting reply here in 2006. This is going to be a huge highlight and our team is really looking forward to it." The German team experienced the whole scale of emotions in 2004 at the Olympic Games. First of all Hoy was able to rejoice about winning the individual gold medal and then she was able to celebrate the team victory together with her fellow team members Klimke, Romeike, Dibowski and Ostholt. Subsequently, she was relegated to 9th place in the individual classification and fourth place in the team classification after protests were placed by the rival teams from France, England and the USA. The German eventers now want to secure a place at the top of the podium in Aachen - with the added help of Dirk Schrade.

Ticket hotline for the FEI World Equestrian Games:

+49-(0)241-917-1111

www.aachen2006.de

German WEG eventing team members:

Bettina Hoy (Gatcombe/GBR) with Ringwood Cockatoo,
Andreas Dibowski (Egestorf) with FRH Little Lemon and FRH Serve Well
Ingrid Klimke (Münster) with Sleep Late
Frank Ostholt (Warendorf) with Air Jordan
Hinrich Romeike (Nübbel) with Marius Voigt-Logistic
Dirk Schrade (Warendorf) with Sindy