Congratulations are in order! Just prior to EuroGeo 5 in Spain, NAUE Geosynthetics‘ Andreas Dürbaum competed with teammates Christoph Dieker and Inga Hormann in Portugal at the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Single Driving Championships. Not only did the overall German team—which was comprised of three squads—win the team gold, but Andreas and his partners won the individual gold medal.
The biannual World Single Driving Championship is a competition that sees two-person carriages driving/racing a single horse through three challenging courses. For the most difficult of the three events—the 18km marathon that combines precision, speed and endurance—NAUE’s Dürbaum served as co-driver with Dieker. They raced their 190 kg carriage through gates just 30cm wider than the 1.25m required carriage wheel spread over a variety of terrain, through water, and around obstacles.
This was the third time Dürbaum and Dieker competed together at the World Championships, and each year they have crept closer, finishing 13th in 2008 (Poland) and 6th in 2010 (Italy). In Portugal, they took home the top prize…which will make 2014 an exciting year. The 2014 FEI World Championship will be hosted by Germany—which is also the location of the 10th International Conference on Geosynthetics (10 ICG, Berlin, September 2014).
We at NAUE are extremely proud of Mr. Dürbaum’s achievement.
Interestingly enough, Mr. Dürbaum began racing 25 years ago; and it was 25 years ago that NAUE invented the needlepunched GCL!
