nieuws - 12/10/2008 Charleroi 2008 a new formula - België
door Karl DonvilCharleroi 2008 new formula.
NOTE that no results are available. However, if you click on "see the pictures" and then on ""quick Search" you will get a list of all the subjects, including the photos of the winners like they were placed in their groups.
NOTEER dat er geen uitslagen beschikbaar zijn, maar als u klikt op "foto's bekijken" en daarna op "snel zoeken" dan krijg je een lijst van alle onderwerpen, inclusief de foto's van de winnaars zoals ze werden geplaatst in hun groep.
NOTEZ qu'il n'y a pas de résultats disponibles. Si par contre tu cliques sur "voir les photos" et ensuite sur "recherche rapide" tu verra une liste de tous les sujets, inclusif les photos des gagnants comme ils étaient placés dans leu groupe.
A new committee has been elected and it was crossing the fingers to see what the results of this change would give. And yes, a lot of things have changed and the number of entries increased with no less the 11% up to 1342 dogs, a pleasant surprise.
Two big halls are in use in the Palais des Expos of Charleroi. In between both halls there is the restaurant. That means that both halls are separated. The first is occupied by rings while the second holds the main ring too. Usually this is a very noisy place to be as during the day there is always an agility competition going on. The new board decide to drop this competition from the program and leave the public gallery away. This is an improvement, there is more space available for the rings and most stand holders had a bigger turnover due to the visitors who were less distracted. The area was more airy and brighter. As there was no noise from the usual competition it gave such a peaceful and more relaxing impression.
There is obviously a better choice of judges, much more international as some years before. This has been the main reason why the show was in big problems a few years ago. No trace of this any longer. 22 Judges were invited and only 7 of them were Belgians. They represented no less then 10 different countries and came from as far as Spain, Russia and Lithuania. France, the closest neighbour, was represented by 5 judges. But not only the judges, but the owners and handlers too came from 15 different countries. What a change compared to 5 years ago! Here too we can see that Charleroi could almost belong to France. While Belgium had 764 dogs in competition, France had no less then 354, Holland had 108 and Germany 48.
But there were also dogs from the United Kingdom (8), Russia (7), Finland, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic and even one from Canada.
Six groups were judged on Saturday and the rest on Sunday with 731 dogs, more then half of the total number of entries. But as only 4 groups needed to be judged on Sunday and the Best In Show, the total length of the main ring program was about the same. The catalogue was OK, containing some statistics, but there was no overview of the number of dogs per breed that every judge had. (That is why you will miss my usual interpretation of the individual success of the judges.) On the other had the name of the judge was repeated under every single sub-group. It could save several pages if this would only be written on top of the breed to judge and create a much better overview. A small detail but it is more economic and better for the environment if paper and ink can be saved.
Best In Show judging was a honour granted to Mrs. Butrimova Kornelija from Lithuania. The Papillon “Queen Bless JP Royal Connection” stole her hearth. We have met this dog on the final podium several times this year. He is owned by Mrs Abeloos-Devos and Mr. Roossens who handles him. He was judged by Mr.Laurent Heinesche from Luxemburg who made him Best of Group later in the main ring on Saturday. Queen Bless is ranking on top of the Belgian top show-dogs list of 2008 and won the prestigious Masters Trophy in Liège, and the latest show in Luxemburg and won also several times the Companion group.
Certain things must still be fine-tuned now. The audio set should be replaced before the next show or at least a better one should be rented. The sound was just horrible and hardly possible to understand. I don’t think this can be the cost as a good set, new or second hand is not so expensive any more. It would also be good to have at least two people take note of the results, to double check them and work them out later. In case something happens to the person in charge of this, there is at least someone else who can take care of this. In fact it should be possible to put it immediately in a laptop computer and print it out right after the show. Catalogues nowadays are based on computer databases and it is a child’s play to edit the main results in just a few mouse clicks.
But let us keep this for next year and give the new committee the chance to improve, just like they did for this edition. The future looks bright for Charleroi.
