Recently, Kimbolton pupil Taylor L. competed in the Agility World Championships in Germany, where she and her dog, Asher, put in an outstanding performance and won a gold medal in the team event. This is a fantastic achievement and a wonderful recognition of the hard work, dedication and teamwork Taylor and Asher have shown throughout their training and competition journey.
Read Taylor’s blog below:
Blog by Taylor L.
This year, the Junior Open Agility World Championships were held in Mannheim, Germany, where the best juniors from around the world competed in both the Team and Individual competitions. This was my sixth time on Team GB and Asher’s third, as well as my final time on the Junior Team as I “age-out” of the under 19 category.
After two relaxing days of travelling with an overnight stopover in Brussels, we arrived in the city on the Monday, with training sessions, vet checks and (most importantly) the opening ceremony, filling the next three days. Then the competition began on the Friday…
Our first run was the Team Jumping, where quartets of dogs and handlers attempt to complete the course with the least number of faults and the fastest combined time across the best three runs of the four. As the last runner of my team, I watched all 3 of my teammates run fast, clear rounds, which took all the pressure off of Ash and I. We stepped into the ring and ran clear as well, finishing as the 4th fastest dog in the whole class and our team came out on top, coming 1st with three of us finishing in the top 15!
Later that day we had the Individual Jumping round, where Ash and I put in another speedy and clean round to finish in the bronze medal position. Our first day couldn’t have been much better!
Saturday brought the Team Agility and the pressure was on… the class is run in reverse order of the results of the jumping, so our team ran last…. and Asher and I were the final dog of the whole team competition. Before us, two of our teammates ran clear and the other received one fault. As the team before us, from the Czech Republic, had run 3 clears, this pushed us down into silver medal position overall. But if Ash and I went clear, we would retain gold… it was all to play for, and probably the most pressurized a run could be.
Our run was anything but neat, with about 15 saves from both me and Ash, but we did it. We went clear and we won gold for our country. The moment was ecstatic, with the whole stadium of people cheering for us, even those from other countries. This medal meant a lot to me, as it was Asher’s first, continuing a legacy of my now retired dog Elliott, who won three gold medals, two of which were in the team competition.
On the final day, we had the Individual Agility: running third to last put the pressure on once again, and it was a bittersweet run. Two mistakes put us out of the running for an overall medal, but we finished our final ever run for junior Team GB with smiles on our faces.
There were many tears shed, tears of happiness, relief and slight sadness that my final international junior event was coming to a close. On the Sunday evening came the medal and closing ceremony, where we celebrated, cried some more and hung gold medals around our necks.
For all the hard work, all the early mornings and late nights, the pain of failure and things not working, but trying anyway because you love the sport; it all paid off in that one
moment. I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity of six amazing years on the team, building a bond with so many people from around the country and the world.
Here is the link to the team video made by my dad to showcase the championships and all that the team achieved: https://youtu.be/tVWUi1Xn6uo?is=H-pg4gItOjKSQqFN
Now, we move into the adult category against the best handlers in the country for a chance to compete for a spot at the European Open Championships in the Netherlands next year, with the try-out process beginning in February.
