Dubbeldam secured victory in stunning fashion in the top-four event of the jumping after banking four clear rounds on four different horses to climb above his fellow riders.

Starting the final day of action in fourth, Dubbeldam opened with a perfect round on his own horse, Zenith SFN, before continuing the impressive form on Beezie Madden's Cortes C and Patrice Delaveau's Orient Express HDC.

The gold medal tussle reached a crescendo in the fourth and final round between the crowd's favourite Patrice Delaveau and Dubbeldam, after the Frenchman also rode clear in his opening three rounds.

As silence engulfed Caen's d'Ornano Stadium, Delaveau notched up an expensive one-penalty time fault on Rolf-Goran Bengtsson's Casall Ask, after stopping the clock less than a second over the 64 second optimum.

Dubbeldam's opportunity for gold was one he was not going to miss as the Sydney 2000 Olympic champion recorded a fourth clear round to wrap up the win and his second title of these World Equestrian Games.

"It's a dream," said Dubbeldam.

"I've had a fantastic week here.

"The pressure was on [in the last round].

"It was my own horse who put me under that pressure by going clear with Patrice, but I was happy with that round.

"My horse has been so good this week that he really deserved to finish with a clear.

"I'm really proud of him."



Australian Boyd Exell kept a clear head in the exciting final obstacle driving competition of the Games to score a fabulous clear round and secure a third World Championship title in a row.

His score of 125.83 placed him ahead of American Chester Weber on 126.60 and The Netherlands' Theo Timmerman on 133.88, as just eight competitors managed to stay clear within the time.

"It was a huge relief," said Exell.

"We had a good show throughout the weekend, but not a perfect show.

"The cones went really well for me although the arena was moving a lot.

"I knew Chester would have a clear round because he has been driving clear rounds all season.

"He has the best cones team and I expected this already.

"It is great to be the world champion again and I would like to thank my entire team for their great support."

Timmerman's bronze medal helped his team on its way to gold in the team competition as they leave France with their fourth team victory.

Twenty points behind, Germany reclaimed their silver from the previous World Equestrian Games, while Hungary secured their first team medal at the Games in bronze.

Equine Canada President, Al Patterson, President of the Bromont Organising Committee, Paul Coté, and General Manager of the Bromont Olympic Equestrian Park, Roger Deslauriers proudly parade the Canadian glad during the Closing Ceremony of the World Equestrian Games ©Cealy Tetley/FEI

Following the exciting final day of action, a Closing Ceremony saw the the International Equestrian Federation flag taken down from its customary position within the D'Ornano Stadium and handed over to Pauline Quinlan, Mayor of Bromont, the hosts of the 2018 World Equestrian
Games.

"We hope our successors from Canada and the city of Bromont live up to the same passion, preparation, organisation, and realisation of this magnificent organisation," said Laurent Beauvais, chairman of the Organising Committee of the World Equestrian Games 2014 and President of the Lower Normandy Region, in his Closing Ceremony speech.

"Long live the World Equestrian Games. We'll meet again in Bromont in 2018!" 

Al Patterson, President of Equine Canada, added: "It's been a wonderful experience watching and cheering on our Canadian equestrian teams in Normandy.

"We are very proud of all of our athletes, and their performances here at the 2014 Games.

"We congratulate every nation's athletes for their successes, and look forward to welcoming everyone to Canada - home of the 2018 Games!"

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