At the World Four-in-Hand Driving Chapionship from 3 til to 7 September in Beesd, the competition will not only be for the highest honours: the organizers have put forward an absolutely record sum in prize money to be made available to the sixty participants The prize purse in Beesd is no less than € 140.000,- , which is € 20.000,- euros more than the four-in-hand drivers could earn at the WDC 2008 at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen in 2006.
In most international driving competitions, the prize money is poor pickings. Where the show jumpers and the dressage riders regularly take a fat purse of winnings home from an international event, the drivers usually have to fork out for themselves. At the World Four-in-Hand Driving Championship in the Hungarian Kecskemét four years ago there was only € 42.000,- in prizes to be had.
This time, the organizing committee consciously put forward the record sum of prizes in their budget: “We are organizing a World Championships and that means there should be decent prize money’’, is how WDC 2008 chairman Pieter Wiersinga put it. “Above all, we hope to influence organizers of World Championships of the future to take this line so that competition driving can be comparable to other top sport disciplines as far as prize earnings are concerned.”
The prize purse in Beesd will be divided over all the competition elements: prizes have also been made available for presentation- an element that doesn’t count in the overal standings. In the dressage and the proficiency tests, the participants will be competing for a good € 13.000,- : in the marathon, more than € 22.000,- will be distributed. For the individual overal standings € 31.500,- has been set aside and the national teams can reckon on € 42.000,-.
As well as all this, the new world champion will, on Sunday 7 September, receive the extremely beautiful bronze statue by the sculptor Jop van Driel valued at € 9.500,-.
