To Sendai and Back: Part 1, the Trial
October 26, 2010
This was Cody’s and my fourth time in Sendai, and like previous times, it was a pleasure to do agility in the mountains. Here is a view from one of the rings:
Agility in the Mountains
Saturday was our day for competing at Level 2. The courses were not bad, just wish we’d qualified on them! We had a refusal in Jumpers, and TWO missed contacts in Standard. The refusal was a direct result of Cody’s blowing his start line stay. Time to come up with a solution to this tiresome problem. That will be a project for the next few weeks as we prepare for our next two day trial at the end of November.
Sunday was slightly better at Level 3 with a clean run in Standard. Cody dropped a bar on the double in Jumpers, and looking at the video later, I saw that it was a direct result of poor timing on my part. On the Standard run, I was forceful on both the A-frame and dogwalk contacts, given our experience of the day before. While we ended up with a clean run, it was much slower than it needed to be, so we were way out of the contention for a placement.
This trial seemed to draw some higher caliber teams than I have typically seen. I noticed that out of the top 10 placements on Sunday, 5 had placed in the top 10 in both Standard and Jumpers. Usually there are only one or two teams that end up placing in the top 10 for both runs.
One of the judges on both Saturday and Sunday was Masanori Kaitoda, a member of the Japanese World Team at the recent FCI World Agility Championships in Germany. He had one run in which he placed second with his Border Collie, Chalo, in Team Jumpers. You can view the run on YouTube:
Someone who attended the trial this past weekend drew up Mr. Kaitoda’s course map for Level 3 Jumpers – she says that it’s not very precise, but it looks pretty accurate to me:
Sendai Level 3 Jumping
On Sunday we also participated in a flyball tournament. Cody’s team rallied and earned first place! We were happy to go home with one placement anyway!
First Place Flyball
Is this the agility location that is in the news prior to the tsunami hitting?
http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/quake14.jpg
No, the place where the trial was held is on higher ground next to an outlet mall named “Hillside Shops and Outlets”. I’m not sure where the field that’s in the photo is located.
If you learn of who is in the photo and/or any agility people in Japan who the world agility community can help, please post, email me, and/or link to this site that is trying to raise money for agility people in Japan:
http://japanagility.chipin.com/japan-agility-hit-by-tsunami
I know usdaa. com would like to know how to help agility competitors in Japan also.
Thank you,
Amy
I’ll see if I can get a contact name – it may take a while, as you can imagine.
Thanks. I can absolutely understand that it will take a while. I’m so deeply saddened, but heartened by the worldwide agility community’s desire to help. Just in case this helps you locate affected agility competitors in the area, The Daily Beast caption for this photo reads: “A massive tsunami engulfs a residential area after a powerful earthquake in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan on March 11.” So, hopefully agility people can identify other agility competitors in Natori and locate who owns this field and/or others in need because of the earthquake and tsunami. I’m emailing agility friends in Japan also and will share contacts if I find out anything.
I think that the agility community in that part of Japan will be touched by the thoughtfulness of the worldwide agility community. I have asked my Japanese agility friends for contacts in Natori and in Sendai, as they were more than likely affected as well. I will be happy help in any way I can, including to post links, etc. to help the process along.
I have the name of the club that owns the agility field in the picture. The team members are all OK, which is great news. Sadly their field and equipment are not. I am working on getting the contact information and will pass it on once I have it.