Agility World Championships 1998

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See the results for Agility World Championships 1997

Meet the Danish national agility team

Denmark has participated in FCI European Agility championships and later FCI World Championships since the start in Helsinki in 1991. But not until 1992 we had official qualifying competitions and an electing commitee.
  This year we had - like last year - high expectations for the Danish National teams - especially the mini team, which have a championship title to defend. Unfortunately the mini team have been "hit" with unfortunate circumstances. Our *star* dog - sheltie Squireforts M.S. Jump the Wall (Jumper) - had an accident running for a ball, hurting her back so bad that she had to be putted to sleep. A catastrophe for the team: and we thought that we should obtain the individual world championship title this year, too.
  Another of our very stable and fast dogs - sheltie Rambye's Midnight News (Nellie) - is not coming either. Nothing has fortunately happened to her, but her handler - Tina-Maria Jørgensen - is not able to make the trip to Slovenia, because of her work.

The team members of the Danish national agility team 1998 are:

The dogs calling name is written in paranthesies. The previous years of participating on the Danish National Agility Team is listed after the dogs name, R means Reserve. (written after my memory - so please bear over with inaccuracy)
 

The mini team (and individuals):
  • Maj-Brit Crone Petersen and Sheltie Shamirosa's Stephinie (Zari). New dog, handler participated every year since '93
  • Annette Dalgaard and Sheltie Ophian Devin the Dare-Devil. New dog, handler participated every year since '91
  • Niels Christian Steen Hansen and mini poodle Summerhill Silver Shadow (Shadow). 95, R96, R97
  • Nanna Holt Kjaer and sheltie Bubbly Famous Girl (Tilda) New dog
  • Reserve:Maj-Brit Crone Petersen and mini poodle Zigga (Zigga). 93 (team bronze), 94 (team silver), 95, 96 (team gold), 97 (team gold)

    •  
    The standard team (and individuals):
  • Regin Reinhard and Border Collie Røde (Rykki). 93 (indiv. gold), 94 (team bronze), 95, 96, 97 (team bronze)
  • Susanne Prier Hansen and Border Collie Gadehaves Glorious Mike (Mike) New dog
  • Bibi Hindsgaul and Border Collie Head Over Heels Indy (Indy). 96, 97 (team bronze)
  • Gitte Hansen and Tervueren Yours forever Kapri(Laika) New dog, handler participated in 94
  • Karsten Bruun and Groenendal Bjaelkehusets Rufus (Rufus) New dog
    • "Agility dog of the year 1998" among the mini dogs is Maj-Brit Crone Petersen's sheltie "Shamirosa's Stephinie" (Zari), which had superior results qualifying for this title. Maj-Brit had the honour of gaining this title in 1994 with her poodle Zigga.

    Gitte Hansen's Tervueren Laika from the standard team won the Danish National Championships 1998 and the title "Agility Dog of the year 1998" for standard dogs were won by Regin Reinhard's border collie Rykki AGAIN this year. They have obtained the title EVERY YEAR since 1993.

    Bibi Hindsgaul's border collie won the individual title for Nordic championships 1997.

    World Championships - how did we do?!
    The optimism on the mini team were not undefeatable. We were quite sure that we would have great difficulties to live up to previous years results. But we enjoyed the atmosphere - enthusiastic public with big bells, horn, song and cheers.
    The courses for the standard dogs seemed "accessible", and the first course for individual, mini jumping (I think it was the "warm up" course for everybody - because the team result were our main issue) were also straight forward. So it was quite a chock for us to see the team, mini jumping course. It seemed very tricky, and the standard course time were set to 32 seconds. How in earth should we manage that - we thought. Several times Nanna (the original reserve, who came on the team when Jumper died) said: "I wish I were the reserve now.....". When the Finnish team ran first on the course and the sheltie leading the individual jumping had time faults - we went all very pale. Maj-Brit and I wished that we were to run with our "old" agility dogs, Aiki and Zigga, who are experts on tricky and narrow courses. But the dogs seemed completely unaffected - and ran like it applied a world championship! They did very good, and we had 3 clear runs and Nanna and Tilda had a minor time fault (0,8 seconds). This meant that we went straight on into a second place - France in the lead.
    We were very happy and the Danish supporters cheered us - they said, we ran very calm and professional so it seemed so easy to run agility. A person from another country, which I have personally trained last year said: "It was very beautiful to look at and everybody on the Danish team ran like you have taught us to do." - meaning that is seemed like everybody on the Danish team were very in control of their dog. Which we of course were - no nerves at all :-)
    The standard dogs did also quite well, had 3 clear runs - Gitte and Laika had an unfortunate knock down. So the team ended the Saturday on a 5th place.
    Sunday started with the individual, standard agility course. We had 3 Danes with clear runs, so it was very exciting if they could gain some good results, because we have always considered agility as one of the strong sides of Danish agility sport. And it seemed that we were right this year, too. Regin and Rykki were 6/100 of a second from the bronze medal and our debutant Rufus had a 8th place in the final individual result. Susanne had Mike had a well deserved 21st place.
    For the mini's we seemed to run out of luck. Our hope for a good individual placement, Zari, had a very strange experience: The judge were literally sleeping when judging Maj-Brit and Zari. He was actually standing in the way for Maj-Brit, so she had to make a turn to pass him, as he was standing at the entry of the dog walk, almost blocking the way for Zari. But as Maj-Brit is an experienced handler, she managed - but she was furious. Her final result were a 9th place. Devin had a very fast run but unfortunately he had to much speed on when climbing the table - so he fell down on the other side. Shadow did a nice, clear run, and Tilda had time faults.
    The Mini teams silver medal But some of the luck came back to us when running the team agility course. The standard team had 3 clear runs again - Gitte and Laika were eliminated - and due to the other teams failures, the Danish standard team ended on a second place - silver medal! For the mini team - we were very excited - could we run 3 clear runs, we were sure of "metal". We did our very best, and when Devin, Zari and Tilda had ran - we had 3 clear runs. Now all that Shadow could do was trying to improve our time. Unfortunately he knocked down the second last jump - but it did not matter. Now should France and the finer counting should decide our final placement.
    France made to many faults to keep their first place, but unfortunately for us - USA "beat" us with 1,39 seconds in time. So close to the gold with our debut/reserve team. We were all very proud.
    The atmosphere in bus home were very elevating during the first hours of the 25 hour long bus trip!
    Look at this homepage to see the results of the World championships 1998. The course designs can also be viewed.

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    Agility World Championships 1998
    Copyright & copy: 1998 Kennel Ophian

    Mail to: annette@ophian.dk
    This page was created by: Annette Dalgaard, kennel Ophian