The days are getting shorter and the temperatures are also slowly dropping. This not only means autumn, but also the start of the World Championship. And the temperatures were actually autumnal on day 1. But it was all the hotter in the hall at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Agility World Championship in Belgium. The teams were loudly welcomed in Sentower Park.
A total of 47 nations are taking part in this year’s World Championship. That’s a total of 700 human-dog teams. But for them, the day didn’t start at 5.30 p.m. with the opening ceremony, but rather continued throughout the day with the veterinary check and size measurements. As far as we know, these affected only Tina B. Tøndering with Ixi. Unfortunately they got remeassured from the Intermediate category into the Large category. But at least the two are still allowed to participate as white dogs.
Usually the stands are not too full on the first few days. That was also the case today in Belgium. The organizers tried to get around this with appropriate music and a light show. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was already pretty good when the teams came onto the field. And when the home team from Belgium entered at the end, the hall shook for the first time.
The Spanish team made a nice gesture for Ismael Fernandez Estevez’s sheltie Time, who died a few weeks before the tournament. They dedicated a flag to her and took it with them to the opening ceremony. A similar sad case occurred in the Latvian national team with Aleksandra Svaikovska and Sheltie Cherry. There too, Cherry died completely unexpectedly a few months before the tournament.
The first runs will begin tomorrow. The Latvian Medium Team will open the tournament with the first team Jumping. This is planned for around 8:30 a.m. This will be followed by the Intermediate Teams and the Small Teams at the end of the day. We will keep you up to date in our live blog. Alternatively, our colleagues at working dog are broadcasting the whole event in the live stream.
Gold Rush Competition 2024
ProsecCup 2024
