European Championships 2024 Belgium

EFC2024 Belgium Zonhoven... Wash Warriors on Tour

Our journey started 9 months ago when the team captain had a crazy idea to take 3 teams to the European Flyball Championships.

We started fundraising by doing raffles, have a go flyball, sponsored walks and the famous Houndogs gig in February.  We had some wonderful donations by very generous people and were sponsored by The Citrus Group.

We managed to raise a massive £4.5k to enable us to get 16 dogs and 10 humans across to Belgium to compete in one of the largest flyball tournaments of the year, where teams from so many countries gather to battle out the fastest teams of dogs, all for the love of our sport.

Arriving midday on Thursday to set up camp, have our dogs measured and join in the evening parade for all teams and countries.

Friday saw Wash Warriors, Aztec Warriors and Viking Warriors in speed trials.   Wash and Vikings were placed into Division 18 propping up the rear of EFC, Aztec were placed into Divison 17.   All 3 teams set a time in their first races, they weren't the times I wanted but we had another 3 races to go to improve.  By the end of the day Vikings had set a time of 21.53s placing them into Division 16 comprising of a 9 team double elimantion, Wash set a time of 19.00s placing them into Division 14, comprising of a 10 team double elimation and Aztec set a time of 17.19s placing them into Division 8, comprising of an 8 team double elimation.

I was over the moon with these times, it also enabled all three teams to be out of the same divisions.  Wash and Vikings were set to run on Saturday, with Aztec on Sunday.

Saturday was definitely a whirlwind of a day where we didn't really have time to reflect on what we were doing, the running order came out and Wash was first up followed by Vikings.  The way the running order was published we were literally back to back racing so as soon as Wash had finished racing we were straight in with Vikings, sometimes holding a ring up because we hadn't finished racing in the other one.

Wash's first race comprised of Maggie, Pip, Zarah and Indie, they were up against Palzer Flizzer and after thinking it wasn't going to be easy, we took a win with 3 straight legs.

Their second race comprised of Maggie, Pip, Chase and Indie racing against  Zentastic Power, we had a real tight race against this team taking it to 5 legs. We won the first two, lost the second two due to lights and won the last race.

Third race comprises of Pip, Zarah, Chase and Indie racing against De Doorzetters Reality we took this to 4 legs, we lost the third leg due to them getting a faster time, the last leg we won on re-runs, both teams got a light, luckily we were fasting in sending our dog and won the leg.

The fourth race was our final and comprised of Maggie, Pip, Chase and Indie we were up against De Doorzetter Reality again (even though we beat them on the previous race, when they went into the semi-finals they beat their opposing team).   We had a small delay waiting for them to finish racing in another ring.  Whilst waiting the judge spoke to me about to the light it was getting dusk, we were asked if we wanted to finish the finals that night or in the morning.  I made the decision to race due to the fact the team were ready, in the right head space and all had their cross overs correct in their heads.  The judge asked the other team the same and they seemed happy to continue.

We only went and won all 3 legs straight out, becoming the divisional winners of  division 14 🏆 🏆 🏆

Vikings choice of dogs was easy as we only had 4!   Flo, Bonnie, Charly and Mabel.

Their first race was against Die Unglaublichen, they took this to 4 legs having lost the 2nd heat due to early crosses for both the start and 3rd dogs.  Winning the race overall they moved onto the second race.

Second race was against The Shadows again taking this to 4 legs losing the first leg with an early on the second dog.  Winning this race overall they moved onto their third race

The third race was against Akele Kamikaze this race went to 5 heats, having lost the 1st heat, we won the next 2, then lost the 4th leaving it to a decider on the last heat.  Akele were faster than us and unfortunately we lost the last heat.  This was the first life we lost so took us down onto the losers route and into the semi-finals.

Due to the light being lost we were informed by the head judges that racing had been suspended for the day and we would be first race in the next morning.

Sunday saw Vikings finishing off their racing from the day before and Aztec setting out on their journey.

Vikings were first up at 8.30am and we went into the morning with the mindset of what ever happens we come away with 3rd place.  We had the two oldest dogs racing,  Charly at 10yrs and Bonnie at 9yrs the two oldies in the team running three days on a trot.

Vikings fourth race was against High Hopes of Warsaw Bullets. We took this race to 4 heats, unfortunately the other team were just quicker than us and I could see that Charly was tired from the previous 2 days.  We managed to win 1 heat against them.

This team did amazing and I'm so proud of them coming home with a bronze podium placing.   Viking Warriors 3rd place for Division 16.

Aztecs turn now, luckily we were able to just concentrate on the one team and this gave us time throughout the day to reflect on Saturdays racing and enjoy watching some of the other teams racing.

Aztecs first race was against Speed Hunters Avada Kedavra, I started the line up with Lottie Blue Bessie and Jessie and we took this race to 5 heats. Out of the first three heats we won 1 race, so I made the decision to pull Jessie and put in Meggie, the last 2 legs we won.

Second race in we were against Flaming 4, on paper we were faster than this team so for the first heat I ran Lottie, Blue, Bessie and Jessie and we lost the first heat, being slower than I was expecting due to my late cross, so instead of jeopardising the team I pulled Jessie out and put Meggie back in we took the race to 5 legs again with a couple of earlies but the last heat came down to a re-run on both sides with us winning.

Their third race was against Bumble Dogs G, knowing this race was going to be tight, I instantly made the decision to run Lottie, Blue, Bessie and Meggie.  We took this race with 3 clear legs. Taking us into the finals.

We were able to watch the semi-finals for this division to see who we would be up against in the finals.  Bumble Dogs G won and this meant we were up against them again in the finals.

So for the final I again decided to put our fastest combination straight in and ran Lottie, Blue, Bessie and Meggie.  We only went and took the race with 3 straight heats.   We had massive support from our amazing friends Waggies and Barking 4 Balls on the side line.  They kept me sane on the sidelines!!

Aztec Warriors divisional winners of Division 8 🏆 🏆 🏆

This weekend had been one in a million, when we decided to travel out to Belgium as a team we never dreamed of coming home with two divisional wins and a 3rd place podium position.

We all had an amazing time and coming back on a high are now talking about EFC 2025 so watch this space.....

Thank you to my amazing team and our two guests from Barkshire for joining us.