BELGIUM! (On Met La Patate!)

This will be a quite boring post about very exciting Agility World Championship 😉. Why? Because really, there is nothing major I’d like to critise about (I mean, all my previous remarks about how we should use good timing equipment and VAR for contacts are still valid, but at least from what I’ve heard the FCI agility commision working groups are on it, so we’re on good track and as for timing, this year very good Alge timers were used and some people obviously would never learn to reward their dog after they win, so the only thing left is to lead by example rather than preach to the converted).

It was totally amazing, fantastic event. Starting with all the crew – nice, smiling, helpful people all around. Usually AWC is a bit strict and crazy, like „can’t go this way, can’t take dogs to the stands, where is your security band, no entry here, no entry there” – this year while there were still some basic security checks it was all so easy and relaxed and I loved it.

The vet control on Tuesday was really thorough, even Pucek’s heart certificate was checked – good job.

The location is awesome with beautiful forest next to it – and because everything was so close and so relaxed, everybody actually had time to walk the dogs <3. Super cool, really. Hot showers! Clean toilets! Beer on the spot! Pancakes! Heaven 😉. Oh, and the DJ was great, first pogo on the AWC arena during ceremonies ever :P.

The schedule was perhaps a bit too relaxed, I mean my dogs certainly appreciated the long breaks between the runs as I could walk them for hours, but on the other hand perhaps it could all be squized a bit more and last at least one day less? This is minor thing though. While it’s fun living agility for a week, it’s also expensive and exhausting and there are more and more voices that the schedule would have to be reconsidered somehow.  

The judges and the courses… I feel like finally we are finding some balance back (I thought after pandemic we lost touch with reality a bit and a sense of what is actualy doable and possible for most teams, lol) and really hope this year’s AWC would set some trends, because courses were fun, level-appropriate (well, obviously Mojo still managed to disqualify but she’s talented like that 😉), with some technical parts and some speedy parts, great to run and great to watch and seriously I enjoyed ALL of them. Judges seemed like a perfect team working well together so as to minimise the number of judging mistakes (but give them VAR as well, they need all the help they can get, they are doing their best to be fair, but see-saws these days are next to impossible to judge especially at this level when we are pushing for splits of seconds).

(And last but not least about judges: Thora’s dress, hat and shoes for opening ceremony were spectacular and I just loved to see that female power shining bright!)

On personal level, well, I’m thrilled with Maupka’s performance at her first AWC, so I feel future is bright. Pucek was doing great, I was running two dogs in a a team, and while I actually coped physically it was difficult for me to switch mentally so I messed his verbals a bit. If I ever qualify with two mediums again I know how to prepare better now and hopefully can do a better job next time. Mojo was speed ;P – love the little brown thing so much, I mean she sometimes lacks better steering wheel but it’s always thrilling to drive a Formula 1. I was hoping for better results, but still enjoyed every moment and remembered to reward the dogs. And I’m still taking the best dogs home.

Agility is breathtaking, thrilling, beautiful and cruel at the same time. Everything can change in a split of a second and I watched this spectacle with awe as always. It was absolutely fantastic that Poland finally got two individual world champions – Paulina Duda with Huzi in small and Iwona Gołąb with SeeYa in intermediate. I honestly don’t know anyone who worked so hard for this success as Iwona did and the fact that she managed to hold it together in the weirdest possible scenario is really inspiring. Huge congratulations to both girls!

Well, history was written – for the first time ever, the combined times of two competitors in individual runs were the same, so there was a third run to determine the winner.

I know lots of people commented on how they both should be champions or how they both should have refused to run or should have got eliminated on purpose etc, but… well, rules are rules. That particular rule was written when sometimes we had several seconds difference between first and second place (not hundreths of seconds as we have now) and I don’t think anyone believed it would ever come to that. Nevertheless, in the light of existing regulations, there was no other option as to have that third run and well, disqualifing yourselves on purpose is not really true sportmanship and I understand and respect the will to fight to the end. Moreover, the regulations were hardly specific enough, so actually lots of things had to be decided on the spot: what if both get eliminated, what if they both got eliminated for the second time, how to decide who runs first, which course they would run, who would judge etc etc. The only thing that I can actually complain about it that it caused a bit of chaos, as it was even annnounced by the speaker that they would run the large course and then it was changed that there will be a different course build for them. I think the world should see both Dalton Meredith and Iwona Gołąb as true champions. Hopefully we’ll have a bit change in the rules and it will be possible to have two champions – since we had that in the Olympics already, why not?

Anyway, now waiting the for the awesome AWC photos 😉.