The local favourite will be joined by the United States' Beezie Madden, Sweden's Rolf-Göran Bengtsson and The Netherlands' Jeroen Dubbeldam in the closing stages of what has been one of the most exciting World Championships of all time.

There were several high-profile withdrawals before today's penultimate competition began, including Germany's Christian Ahlmann, who was lying 10th with Codex One, Canada's Yann Candele, in 22nd place with Showgirl, and America's Kent Farrington, who was holding 27th position with Voyeur.

Following the withdrawals, 29 horse-and-rider combinations lined up in today's penultimate competition in the jumping championship with just eight jumping clear in the second round.

There were 21 combinations returning for the second round with nine of these going clear.

Delaveau's performance landed him in pole position going into tomorrow's top-four final, with Madden in second, Bengtsson in third and Dubbeldam completing the quartet in fourth.

Despite his strong performance, Delaveau admitted that he has been feeling the pressure.

"For me this has been a difficult day," he said.

"Everyone was expecting this.

"I live 40 kilometres away from here and I know everyone and all everyone has talked about every day was this competition.

"So the pressure has been huge for me and to jump the last fence was a real relief."

Christoph Sandmann turned quickest in the driving marathon to move Germany up to second in the team competition ©Marie de Ronde-Oudemans/FEI



It was a spectacular day at La Prairie Racecourse for the marathon phase of driving at the World Equestrian Games.

German Christoph Sandmann turned quickest for a score of 89.30 points after his team mate Georg von Stein, who finished in 90.28, had explored the route for him.

Defending champion Boyd Exell of Australia finished third, securing the overall lead again with a combined total of 125.83, with overnight leader Chester Weber of the United States dropping into second on 128.60 points after a slow round.

"My horses gave me everything I could ask for," said Exell.

"They were strong, quite fresh and pulled me through everything, and with fifteen seconds gained we must have been quick elsewhere.

"The carriage stayed tight.

"We were never on two wheels as the spectators like it but I prefer less chance of falling over."

Despite finishing 13th in the marathon, Dutchman Theo Thimmerman and team mates IJsbrand Chardon and Koos de Ronde, who finished sixth and fourth respectively, still sit in first position in the team competition of the driving.

Germany's strong performance saw them jump into second, with Hungary holding on to third.

The US now lay fourth coming into the final obstacle-cone contest tomorrow.

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