Last year's competition in Nymburk, Czech Republic, was among my fondest memories from the season, and this year's competition (May 16-17) more than met my expectations. Nymburk is a lovely town in Central Bohemia on the Elbe River; the competition site is right next to the northern bank of the river (in which dogs can happily swim between frisbee rounds). There's a walking/cycling path along the river that I'm told extends 10 km or so; I've never had the chance to explore its full length but used it on many occasions, this year and last, for shorter walks with the dogs. There is an ice hockey arena adjacent to the playing field and a hostel associated with it, where you can stay in quite a nice room at minimal cost--I paid about 13€ per night, dogs were free of charge.
Last year I competed with Oli and Lyra (who took home three cups between them); this year Lyra stayed home due to health problems (she tested positive for ehrlichiosis earlier this year and is having some joint/muscle problems, so she's no longer in active training) but I had the new addition to the family, Bamm Bamm. Last year there were a little under forty competitors, this year there were about 70--so many that the organizers set up two playing fields, with events running concurrently on Sunday, otherwise we would have been there till midnight. One fellow, Kevin Harrison, traveled all the way from England to compete: dogfrisbee is not yet well developed there, and Nymburk, though far, is a particularly attractive competition because there are four Toss & Fetch events over two days, whereas most others that would be closer generally offer just superministance in addition to freestyle (which Kevin is not yet doing with his dogs). Competitors also came from Austria and Hungary. And Slovenia, of course, though there was unfortunately only one of us. Well, three, if you count the dogs. Tamara and Žak had planned to come but in the end couldn't make it due to illness. Nobody from Poland this year, which was a little disappointing, I was looking forward to seeing some acquaintances from last year. Lots of lots of Czechs, including quite a number of newcomers. Dogfrisbee is really taking off in that country.
I arrived Friday night about 6 p.m. after a full day of driving, woke up Saturday morning to drizzle. The rain stopped before the competition started at 9, but the wind picked up. Terrible for frisbee, especially if you're as bad at throwing in windy conditions as I am. Saturday's events were Quadruped and Time Trial, and the wind was a problem for me (and many others) in both events. The start line for Quadruped and Time Trial is designated by the organizers; you can't choose which end to throw from like you can for minidistance. And it so happened that they positioned it so that we were throwing into the wind. :(
Normally Quadruped is one of my strongest events (PB is currently 55 m, hope to improve on that this season) but I threw so badly in the qualifying round that I barely cleared 30 m. Disgraceful. For those of you who may not be familiar with how it works, for the qualifying round you get one throw, without the dog, and this is used to place people in four groups. My throw was only fifth longest, which meant I was in the same group as the person who made the longest throw (43 m) in the qualifying round. That was Lucka, who was competing with her beautiful "Chodsky crash" dog Darri. I was not exactly happy about being in the same group with her, since only one of us would advance to the final. And I neither wanted to be beaten by her, nor beat her at that stage of the game. I had hoped we would be in different groups and then meet in the final.
Watching her practice, as one frisbee of hers after another sailed straight, level, and a very long ways down the field, notwithstanding the strong headwind and crosswinds, while my own throws were slanting sideways and falling well short of her distances despite my best efforts, I thought to myself, ok, fifth place and second longest catch of the day will be just fine, under the circumstances. But in fact I got extraordinarily lucky, since when it was time for our group the wind had died down a bit. Still had to throw into it, but it wasn't as bad as earlier (and later) in the day. My very first throw in that series was a good long one that Olivia caught easily, and that steadied my nerves somewhat and gave me the confidence I lacked. One by one the other three competitors in the group were eliminated, and then it was just between me and Lucka.
In Quadruped you get three chances to make a catch in each round. Oli missed the first two throws; the first one was not a good one, the second was quite respectable but she didn't want to run to the frisbee, whether because she was tired and hot or because she was bothered by photographer Pavel Humpolec sitting on the ground at the end of the field, I'm not sure. In the meantime Lucka had made a very nice completion with Darri, 45.6 meters distant. So before my third and final throw I frantically tried to cool Oli off with a wet towel, and I shooed Pavel back a bit, as you can see here ;):
And miraculously, my third throw was a success. Oli ran fast and far (yelling encouragement to her helps), the throw was right down the center, level, and, critically important, a few meters farther than Lucka's, as you can see here--the frisbee on the ground marks the spot of Darri's best catch:
Lucka had one more throw left to try to beat my throw of 49.5 m, but Darri failed to catch it. And so Oli and I advanced. Naturally I was thrilled to make it to the final, amazed and also quite proud of myself because I had managed to perform well even under intense pressure (headwind, competing against a superb player, only one final chance to make a winning throw), which I don't always handle well. But I was also sorry that Lucka and Darri were eliminated. Though I am certain that at some future competition the outcome will be reversed. This just happened to be my day.Not, however, my day to win. In the final (four competitors) I easily advanced to the point where it was just between me and one another competitor, Oli had the longest catch each time. But then in the very last round I made three poor throws and she didn't catch any. They all went sideways, wind was a factor, she was tired by this time, but those are just excuses really, the plain fact is that I just didn't throw well. So we finished in second place.
But it didn't really matter, 2nd place and longest catch of the day (longer even than all of the men's throws except for winner of men's Quad Jakub) was just fine with me. Had no room for a big bag of dog food anyway. And the winner, Jana Vadasova, was very happy. ;)
Quadruped results here.
But if I was pleased with the way I had handled Quadruped (apart from the very last round), I was disappointed in my performance in Time Trial. This year, because of the large number of competitors, we only had two chances to do Time Trial rather than three, and throwing into the wind I didn't manage to make two consecutive catches with either dog. I had no great expectations for Bamm Bamm; even if we'd gotten two in a row we would not have had a winning time because he is slow to turn around and he doesn't deliver the frisbee to my hand (like Lyra) or drop it at my feet (like Oli), he drops it a distance and then circles round, wasting valuable time. But Oli is exceptional. She has terrifc acceleration and speed over the ground, she turns on a dime (kind of like a Quarter Horse), drops the frisbee right at my feet, and is instantly ready to take off again. If I had just managed to give her two consecutive throws that were catchable, she would have finished in the top three for sure, and quite possibly have won: her winning time last year of 17.52 seconds is still faster than the new Czech record of 17.72, set by the winning dog on Saturday. But she wasn't able to show her stuff because my throws weren't good enough. Oh well, better luck next time.
Time trial results here.
Saturday evening we played the usual pickup game of ultimate, terrific fun. Nobody keeps score and nobody cares who wins, we just run around, if you have the frisbee you try to find someone who is open to throw it to, if a team member of yours has it, you try to get open and catch it, if the other team has the frisbee, you try to prevent them from completing a throw and above all from scoring. Simple!
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