Aachen, September 2st, 2006

Goodbye Michael Freund

Standing ovations from the crowd in Aachen as Michael Freund bids farewell: During his last lap of honour around the Soers stadium, the fans just didn't want to stop cheering. The newly crowned Team World Champion, the role model of German driving sport, ended his international career after the FEI World Equestrian Games.

No other German driver has been as successful as Michael Freund: World Champion in the individual classification (1994), Team World Champion (1992, 1994), twelve-time German Champion, many-time winner of the World Cup, five-time winner in the combined classification at the CAIO in Aachen, Nations' Cup victories and numerous big international CAI victories - the driving sport is losing a valuable driver. In future the 51-year-old driver from Dreieich, Hessen, will concentrate on training young driving horses and coaching the US Americans Chester Weber and Tucker Johnson. Freund's biggest wish: "That my son Marco follows in my footsteps, so that I can perhaps accompany him here to the CHIO as his trainer in ten years time."