Will and Rudi with Team Scotland at World Agility Open 2023
This year’s WAO, in Ermelo in the Netherlands, proved to be a roller coaster for Will and Rudi as well as the whole Scotland team. Some amazing runs, near misses, the most challenging courses Will has ever run and a fantastic atmosphere created by agility competitors and fans from around the world made for an incredible experience on and off the course.
The first day saw the Opening Ceremony. Will, again complete with kilt, proudly led out the Scotland team:
The Pentathlon
The first day of competition saw the pair compete in the first leg of the pentathlon competition – an agility round in the main arena:
This fantastic start for Will and Rudi put them in a great position to qualify for the next stage of the pentahlon. They needed a strong jumping round to be able to run parts 3 and 4 of the event:
To get a double clear on the world stage on very challenging, technical courses was a real achievement and left our pair in 11th place overall – wow! This meant they comfortably progressed to the next stage. Part 3 was another agility run in the main arena and the courses continued to get tougher!
The round of 10 faults kept the pair right in contention in 16th place overall. Only the top 20 pairs would progress to the 5th and final round, so there was a lot riding on the 4th run for Will and Rudi.
They took on the challenge of another jumping round which Will was happy to admit was the toughest course technically that he had ever attempted. It was fast, flowing but full of traps at just about every obstacle and a credit to the design ingenuity of the judge Petr Pupik:
Will handled beautifully up to number 18 where he had to take an extra pace to ensure Rudi went around the back of the jump on the correct side. This left him half a metre out of position for the next obstacle and, such was the difficulty of the course, this was enough to mean Rudi took a tunnel instead of a jump. This was probably the best that will had handled all week and it is a shame that it still resulted in an elimination!
Sadly this meant Will and Rudi finished in 24th place and just missed out on a place in the final and a World top 20 finish. However, all agreed that Will should be proud of his performance at this level.
The Biathlon
On another challenging course, the event started with jumping. The top 30 would progress to the final agility round. Rudi seemed slightly distracted (or tired) on this run and over focussed on a tunnel to get an elimination:
This meant the pair did not qualify for the final.
Games – Snooker
After a 10th place finish in last year’s snooker round and a place in the games final, Will and Rudi were hopeful of a repeat performance. After a great start, the pair were heading into the final sequence when Will led a slightly incorrect line meaning Rudi took the wrong side of a jump – ending their point scoring:
This meant the pair didn’t quite gain enough points for a place in the top 30 to take them through to the games final.
The experience of meeting new friends from all over the world, seeing the very best agility handlers in action and being part of such a lovely team made this year’s WAO as special as ever.
The RAW agility team had a fantatsic time and have plenty of thank yous to offer to the helpers, volunteers and managers of the event which ran smoothly throughout.
Thank you to the judges, Andre Landry (Canada), Jason Bartram (England) and Petr Pupik (Czechia) whose courses flowed, challenged and excited.
Most of all, thank you to the Scotland Manager Alan Strong, Assistant Manager Eilidh Murray and all of the team and supporters who made the event so enjoyable.
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