Agility World Championship 2022: Why Austria and not Estonia, Russia or the Czech Republic?

It’s been a long time since the last dog ran at a Agility World Championship. More precisely two years. Before tomorrow’s start, we have time to give a brief overview of why the tournament is taking place in Austria and not in Estonia, Russia or the Czech Republic.

Indeed, in the last two years since the 2019 World Championship in Turku, Finland, events have overturn. Also the 2020 World Championship was originally planned in the north. Specifically in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn. But then a global pandemic ensured that the plan stayed as a plan. The Covid-19 outbreak caused sporting events to be canceled worldwide. So does the AWC 2020. For the first time in the history of the Agility World Championship that an event has to be cancelled. And not just once. Because in the following year 2021, despite progressing vaccinations and new knowledge about the virus, the Estonian organizers and the FCI said relatively early on that the tournament could not be held during the pandemic again.

This was preceded by talks between the Estonian organizers and those responsible for the already fixed World Championships (Russia 2021 and Czech Republic 2022) to postpone their events for another year. Although they all agreed in the difficult situation, as already mentioned, Covid-19 got the upper hand. And a third time they didn’t want to push it back in Estonia. In the case of Russia, however, the generous gesture turned out to be a fatal mistake. But step by step. There was great euphoria in Russia to hold the first World Championships in Moscow in 2022. Especialy after the gold medal by Stanislav Kurochkin and Zippi in the Individual Large. Although Covid-19 was always in the back of their minds, compared to last year everyone believed firmly that they could host a tournament of that size again. Enthusiasm within the Agility community was somewhat limited due to numerous reports of human rights violations in Russia and ongoing aggressions against Ukraine. However, everything seemed to be going according to plan.

Until February 24, 2022 when Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine and started an invasion war. This approach was met with resentment in large parts of the world, and within a few days the country lost a number of sporting events. Even in the Agility community, voices were raised already on day 1 that a World Championship in a warmongering country was not appropriate. Especially since the affected country, Ukraine, also takes part in the tournament. At a special meeting, the FCI then decided that Russia would be deprived of the rights to host the 2023 tournament. The decision was then, however, more just an official statement what was already clear beforehand. A little later, Russia was also completely excluded from all official FCI events.

The decision at the special meeting was not automatically a death knell for the 2022 tournament. Instead, a back door was left open and interested nations and associations were able to apply as a host for the same year. If you consider that a World Championship usually has a lead time of 3-4 years, then the idea of ​​getting all this up and running in half a year is very sporty. In the end, it was Austria who decided to take this step. In this respect, it was also clear that one or the other expectation had to be lowered. Nevertheless, the tournament will open tomorrow as planned (at short notice) in Schwechat, Austria. The venue and basketball hall Multiversum, which is somewhat smaller than in previous years, serves as the tournament location. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the atmosphere can’t be just as good.