The European Open Junior Agility Championship competition was held in Milan, Northern Italy this year. Kim Berglund shared his story about his trip to JEO.
"I was in the Finnish team already last year when the competition was held in Switzerland. Back then, I competed with one dog so we took the plane. This year was a bit different as we decided to drive to Milan with a camper van. One reason for this was the expensive flights as this year I was in the team with both my dogs, Peski and Spike. Here I’ll tell you a little bit about how the trip went and about the results.
We took the ferry to Umeå in the morning on the 5th July, so we reached Umeå around noon. The intention was to drive all the way down to Malmö but as the distance between Umeå and Malmö is 1200km, we didn’t drive all the way but instead drove to Stockholm. First we stopped over in the village of Docksta, ate and walked the dogs a bit. The next stop was in Sundsvall as Ranes was feeling hot and was panting. We stopped at a spot where the dogs could swim. We arrived in Stockholm at around 11pm Swedish time. Altogether we drove 751km the first day.
The second day we drove 810km, from Stockholm to Heligenhafe in Germany. Oh, we did spend 45 minutes on the ferry from Denmark to Germany. This leg was the longest on the trip out to Milan.
On Tuesday, like Eija said the day before, we drove all the way to Milan. It was the shortest leg during the trip out, 631km, but at the same time it was definitely the roughest. From Germany we drove to Austria where we spent around five minutes, then continuing the trip to Switzerland. The worst thing there were the Swiss alps, particularly that one descent. An 8 % downward slope out of which 15km was a spiraling road – at the side of the road there was a picture of a truck slamming its brakes, with the brakes burning. So you were only supposed to brake with the gears. We arrived in Milan at 7.30pm. The next day was spent just relaxing.
On Thursday, other people from Finland had already arrived so we decided to take the taxi and visit downtown Milan. We went to dinner together and returned to the campsite when Tomas had a team leader meeting.
On Friday, the EOJ 2014 began officially and we had the vet check-up and some practice during the day. The practice went quite well in the sense that the dogs acted pretty much the same as they do at home.
On Saturday the 13th July, it was time for the individual competition. I didn’t manage to get a joint result with either of my dogs after the disqualification of the first course. But I ran a clean run on the jumping course with both my dogs, Peski placed 12. and Spike 19. Altogether there were 34 clean runs on that course. On the small dog course Sini-Maria Kuula and Shetland Sheepdog Olga were second after the agility course. In the joint result Sini placed sixth with Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Nana. Congratulations to Sini! Also in the large dogs Helena Heino did a good job with three German Shepherds and placed tenth with Pink. Congratulations to Helena!
On Sunday it was time for the team competition and Finland’s ”The Flying Finns” were going strong. Finland had only one team out of three possible teams. There were four Finns in the team, or actually just two handlers but four dogs. The Medium Flying Finns placed fifth on both the agility and the jumping course. However, in the joint results we reached the third place and won bronze. Me with Spike and Peski and Elsi Pulli with Didi and Skitso formed the team. Both Spike and Peski ran a clean run on both courses. Congratulations to my team mate Elsi Pulli for the good work!
The trip back home began on Monday. The first leg was the shortest of the whole trip, only 445km. In Rust, we spent the night at Europa Park. Otherwise the trip back home was pretty much the same as the trip out to Milan. Oh well we did drive the longest leg of the trip as well, 1098km from Rust to Malmö.
Last, I would of course like to thank my team mates and their families, Helena Heino, Sini-Maria Kuula and Elsi Pulli with families. At the same time I would like to highlight how Finland is quite far behind in terms of junior agility compared to for example how many junior handlers there were from France and Italy at the competition. From these countries there have been all in all around 50 competitors while there were only four handlers from Finland. These juniors are the future, and how will the way in which these juniors move and handle at this point be reflected in the future? Anyway we had a fun trip, I made many new friends, gained international experience and got to do what I like. Thank you all for this year!"
Written by Kim Berglund
