The winner, who admits to preferring books to obstacle Driving and is yet the undisputed master of it, performed a faultless test through the technical cones course, which combined with his 4th position after Dressage and 2nd after the marathon, helped him to secure the final victory. So precise and fluent was he, that to some the course seemed as though it had been tailor made for him.

It clearly was not Ysbrand Cardon’s day. A mistake he never usually makes – his left back horse jumped aside – deprived him of the gold medal.

Germany takes the team gold (311.84 points) followed by Belgium (316.55) with the silver and The Netherlands (319.32) in bronze. It was a remarkable career end for home nation’s Michael Freund for whom this is was the last international competition. “I will continue training my American friends Tucker Johnson and Chester Weber as well as my son who is now nine. I hope to be back to Aachen in ten years to see him compete,” he said with emotion. With fellow team-mate and good friend Christoph Sandmann also considering the end of his international career, the face of German Driving will soon be changing. A glorious period is coming to an end by sport is always is full of surprises and surely there is young talent lurking behind a fence or a cone.