Kath judging the Nordic HTM and Freestyle Championships
6th - 9th November 2009

Kath has just returned home after a very busy weekend in Denmark. She left Derbyshire early Friday morning on the 6th of November and arrived to Birmingham Airport a few hours before departure... Just to be told that the flight would be delayed by an hour!

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.

Henriette and Lucia performing in Novice HTM

Marianne and Blondie in Advanced Freestyle.

It ended up being a late night as the judges were taken out for a judges' dinner, which did not start until 8 pm!!!!

The Danish Team at the opening ceremony

The Finnish, Swedish and Danish teams at the opening ceremony

Sunday was the 'big' day. The Nordic Championships!

Swedish judge Rolf Gustavsson and Kath

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.

Some of the spectators

More spectators

The helpers at the Nordic Championships - score keeper, webmaster, DJ, Speaker and Show Manager

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!

Johanna Anderson's bitch was in season so they had to perform in an extra ring

Sini Eriksson and her sheltie Sonic (Finland) - Nordic Freestyle Championship Winners

Lina Petterson and her Hungarian Pumi Zing (Sweden) - Individual Silver Winners

Emmy Simonsen's sheltie Biscuit (Denmark) - Individual Freestyle Bronze Winner

Emmy Simonsen and Whisper (Denmark) - Individual HTM Gold Winners

Anja Christiansen and Queeny (Denmark) - Individual HTM Silver Winners

Sofie E. Hjorth and Gaia (Denmark) - Individual Bronze Winners

The competition finished at about 2 pm the winners were announced.

The Danish team practising their cheerleader dance before the competition

Swedish Cheerleader dance

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.

Merete and Khan, Norway

Rolf Gustavsson (Judge, Sweden), Merete Huser (Norway), Khan (BSD) and Kath

Sweden won the Nordic Freestyle Championship for teams.

The Gold winning Swedish Freestyle Team

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).

The Gold winning Danish HTM Team

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 winner of the individual Nordic HTM Championship Emmy Simonsen with Whisper performing in the main ring.

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.

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 Danish Teams

Kath and Henriette are in the main ring with the Chairman of the Danish KC's Obedience Committee Erling Olsen.

The Danish Freestyle Team in the main ring

Kath returned to England early Monday morning.

Photos: Yvonne Öster, Sofie Hjorth, Helle Larssen and Emmy Simonsen