After landing in Copenhagen, there was a 4 hour drive to the Nordic Venue, however, she did arrive in time in Herning for the judges' briefing on Friday night! Phew! She was introduced to the two other Nordic Championship judges Rolf Gustavsson (Sweden) and Henriette Ortmann (Denmark).
Saturday - Kath was judging an official Danish HTM competition in the venue where the Nordic Championships was to be held the next day. It was not a big show - just about 20 entries and Kath had completed all her judging by noon. She then had the rest of the afternoon to look around the big breed show, visit the trade stands, watch some obedience and a HTM and Freestyle demonstration in the main ring.
It ended up being a late night as the judges were taken out for a judges' dinner, which did not start until 8 pm!!!!
A German Shepherd performing in HTM at the official Danish show.
And a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel performing in FreestyleSunday was the 'big' day. The Nordic Championships!
The opening ceremony started at 9 am. The CEO of the Danish KC declared the Championships were open and the 'white dog' (the reserve for the Danish Freestyle team) entered the ring to perform the very first routine as a demonstration, it was not judged.
The first routine to be judged, was performed in an extra ring, which had exactly the same size and shape as the Nordic Championship ring as it was a bitch from the Finnish team and in season so she had to be kept away from the rest of the dogs and the main HTM ring!
The competition finished at about 2 pm the winners were announced.
The Norwegian KC had decided not to be represented at this year's Nordic Championships, but one handler Merete Huser with her BSD Khan had still decided to travel to Denmark and show the Norwegian flag. She performed a boxing routine as a demonstration round after the last official performance. The Finnish reserve did also do a demonstration.
Sweden won the Nordic Freestyle Championship for teams. Denmark won the Nordic HTM Championship. (They were the only country which was able to send a HTM team to represent this division of the sport.) Sini Eriksson with her Sheltie, Sonic from Finland won the Individual Nordic Freestyle title and Emmy Simonsen from Denmark with Border Collie, Whisper won the Individual HTM title.
The 2 individual winners were invited to perform their routines in the main ring later on the day and the prize giving was in the main ring too.
Kath returned to England early Monday morning.
Kath judging at the Nordic Championships in Herning
The Swedish judge Rolf Gustavsson and Kath
The helpers at the Nordic Championships - webmaster, DJ, Speaker and Show Manager
Some of the spectators
The 3 teams behind the curtain, getting ready to go into the main ring for prize-giving. Kath was behind the stage with them as she was asked to the main ring too, to recieve a present and present the trophies and rosettes to the winners along with fellow judge Henriette.
The Swedish Freestyle Team Gold Medal Winners
The Danish Teams - HTM Gold Winners and Freestyle Silver Winners
The winner of the individual Nordic HTM Championship Emmy Simonsen with Whisper performing in the main ring.
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