It was the first time at the EC for Tamara and Žak (and only their second competition), and they did extraordinarily well: 2nd place (of 23 teams) in the Starters category, only 2/10 of a point behind the winners.
Their freestyle was really nice, despite difficult windy conditions on both days. After the first round of freestyle and minidistance, they were in fourth place, then moved up to 2nd after a very good second round of freestyle. Video available here.
It was the second EC for Tomaž and Casper. Last year they competed in the Starters category, this year Tomaž opted for Bonsai, and became the European Vice-Champion in this category (7 teams), finishing just 1/10 of a point behind the champion Marcus Wolff and Bounty.
You can see their impressive performance here.
For Amadea and Bora, too, it was their second season of competition, and second time competing at the European Championship. Last year they won the Young Dogs category, this year they finished 9th of 55 teams in the Open category, and qualified as second alternate for the USDDN National Finals and International Finals in Cartersville, Georgia. Despite the urging of her coaches and others who have seen her play, Amadea had long resisted moving from the Starters to the Open category, but with these results there should no longer be any doubt that she and Bora can hold their own among the best teams in Europe.
Video of their second freestyle round here; Amadea and Bora also qualified for the USDDN National Finals and International Finals in Super Pro Toss & Fetch with a 7th-place finish (45 teams) in that event.
As for me, this was my third time competing at the European Championship. At Wroclaw, Poland, in 2007, I was the only competitor from Slovenia, and finished with Lyra in third place in the Advanced freestyle category, an intermediate category between Starters and Open. I've only ever seen it at that competition, lucky for me they offered it, because at that stage I wouldn't have stood a chance in Open. That year I also finished fourth in Super Pro T & F with Lyra, qualifying for the USSDN National/International Finals. With Oli I was eighth in Super Pro, and in addition I had the longest catch of the competition with her in Women's Quadruped (54.7 m). In 2008, I qualified with Oli in Super Pro with a 4th-place finish, and with Lyra in Freestyle with a sixth-place finish in Open. This time it was Lyra's turn to make the longest catch in Women's Quadruped: 55 m, setting a new and still standing Slovenian record.
This year I very nearly didn't go. It was a long way to travel, money has been tight, and my freestyle training and competing this season has been limited by injuries as well as financial constraints. But my daughter generously offered to let me do freestyle with Oli, who is her dog, and Flipsi provided financial assistance. And Tamara, who doesn't have a car, was depending on me for transportation. So I thought, okay, I'll go. And the dogs and I didn't too badly, all things considered. The wind was strong on both days of the competition, with intermittent bursts of heavy showers and occasional rumbling thunder. For this reason I decided not to compete with Lyra in freestyle. She hates rain, she's scared of thunder, and the wind increases the risk of contortions and bad landings. She's had some bouts of lameness this year related to ehrlichiosis and I didn't want to take any chances. So I did just Super Pro T & F with her, gave her pretty good throws but her catching was inconsistent, and Quadruped, where we were knocked out in the first round due to my subpar throwing.
Oli excelled in Super Pro; she was tied for first place after the first round but dropped a few places to fourth after the second round due to a couple of bad throws on my part. Still high enough to qualify for the National/International Finals, for the second year running.
But where she really surprised me was in Open freestyle. Normally I don't do freestyle with her, only Toss & Fetch. I had just a couple of weeks to put together a routine, and we only performed it for the first time from start to finish at the EC itself. She had a very good minidistance (19 points) but even so I was astounded to find myself and her in 10th place after the first round of freestyle and minidistance. In the middle of our second round of freestyle a massive storm broke out, with strong winds blowing the rain (and frisbees ;)) sideways; you can see people scurrying for cover in the video of our performance. Somehow we managed to keep it together (just barely) till the end, and our final ranking was 12th place of 55 teams, not bad for our first ever freestyle competition.
A few more photos:
Slovenian fans, waving the Slovenian flag...
but with the Czech flag painted on their faces (dual loyalties? ;))...
and Žak, doing his part to break camp on the morning of departure by smooshing the air out of Tamara's mattress...
Congratulations to all on the impressive results! Thanks again to Flipsi for financial support, and thanks, too, to Sabine Bruns and Marcus Wolff, who have taught many of Slovenia's active competitors much of what we know about the sport, thereby contributing significantly to the success of the Slovenian team.
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