September 26-28, 2003 - Lievin, France
Day Six
USA Large Team Wins Bronze!
Saturday started out with the USA Team and supporters once again on their buses by 7:00 am for the 45 minute ride to the stadium for the day's competition. Today's events were Small and Medium Team Jumping as well as Small, Medium and Large dog team Standard.
First up was our Small dog team competing with 20 other countries in Team Jumping. Judge Mariannic Jourden had a 170 meter, 44 second course with 20 obstacles (technically there were 22 obstacles since there was a 3 obstacle flow). The course was similar in type to her Large Individual jumpers from yesterday. It was a technical course with a lot of speed into the poles. The pole entrance caused minimal problems for the teams in this class. Our leadoff team was Kathie Legget and Heather who started us out in good position with a clean run of 40.69 seconds. Based on the other runs we needed to keep at 40 seconds and under to stay be in the top rankings. Team member Erin Schaefer and Jag posted the fastest time for ALL dogs competing in the Small Dog Team Jumping. Roger Coor and Moso had the second fastest time overall, but unfortunately he had a knocked bar which gave the team a 5 fault penalty. At the end of the round the USA team was 9th out of the 20 teams. Total team time was 111.68 with 5 faults. The top team after this round was Switzerland with 108.96 and all clean rounds.
Next to the line was the Medium Dog team on the same course with a standard course time of 42 seconds. There were 21 teams in this category. We started out strong with Joan Meyer and her Shetland Sheepdog, Dustin, who put in a solid clean round at 39.17 seconds. Next to the line was Nancy Kleinhans and Joni. Joni unfortunately found the tunnel at the wrong time and incurred a wrong course penalty for a 50 point fault. Our anchor team was Barb Davis and Shimmer who sped their way through the course in 38.01 seconds with a clean round. We were in 14th place after this 1st round.
Then there was a complete course change as we moved into the Team Standard course competition for the rest of the day. Judge Emile Vervoort designed the course for both the Small and Medium teams. The course measured 168 meters with 47 seconds at the standard course time and had 20 obstacles (again a 3 obstacle flow for a total of 22).
This time the Small dog team ran into more difficulties than they had on the Jumpers course. Kathie Legget and Heather started out strong, but got a refusal in the flow element and later had a refusal at the weave poles. Roger Coor and Moso came to the line and brought down the house with their 39.47 course time, which proved to be the fastest time for any dog in the Small Team Standard competition. Our final dog was the blazing fast team of Erin Schaefer and Jag. While their speed was tremendous, it proved to be not enough on the course total as they acquired a refusal, missed contact and off course. Only 1 team out of all of the Medium Dogs went clean without course or time faults. The Swiss team won the Medium Dog competition with a cumulative time of 235.30 and no faults over the 2 rounds. Second was Spain with 255.44 and 1.96 faults. Third was Lativia with 265.20 and 2.33 faults.
The Medium Dog team got a shot at this course next. Only 2 teams were clean coming in to this round. Joan and Dustin ran another solid fast round at 42.82 seconds. Nancy and Joni came through clean with a 43.63. Barb and Shimmer ran a fast course, but incurred a very close missed contact call on the A-Frame. Not one team finished this round 100% clean over the two rounds. Austria was 1st with 252.86 and 5 faults; 2nd was Spain with 255.26 and 5.27 faults and finally was Russia with 296.06 and 7.09 faults. Russia was the only Medium team with no course faults, only time faults.
Finally we came to the Large Dog Team Standard. The USA came into this round in 5th place and the course designed by Judge Maryannic Jourdin provided many challenges to the teams. The course was 200 meters long, course time of 47 with 20 obstacles (22 with the 3 obstacle flow included). This course provided challenges all over, it did not have one area that proved to be the most difficult. Around each turn there was a new challenge.
By the time the USA stepped to the line 26 teams had already run and only 3 of them had completely clean rounds in the Standard class. Jen Pinder and Static dispatched the course in a smooth, fast manner posting a time of 44.04 seconds. Next came Terry Smorch and Remy who provided a couple of gasps for the crowd. Terry ran the outside section on one part of the course that no one had tried to that point and the crowd made an audible sound as he worked to out run Remy. Then at the end of the turn off the dog walk Terry slipped and fell as Remy approached a jump, Remy continued over the jump and narrowly missed an off course. They finished the course in a fast 41.88. Our final team was Elicia Calhoun and Suni. They had a great run at 44.96 seconds, but there was one refusal called during their run. Still the strong efforts of the team moved them into second place with 4 more teams left to run. Great Britain put in 3 clean rounds to move to 1st place. The other 3 teams had major faults. In the end the USA Large Dog Team had won Bronze in the team competition, an excellent placement over two days of intense, high quality competition. Final standing in the Large Dog competition was Great Britain 1st with 247.37 and no faults; Belgium 2nd with 251.92 and .23 faults; and the USA 3rd with 245.32 and 5 faults.
Tomorrow will give the dogs running in the individual competition their final round for individual placements.
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