Hundreds of spectators gathered around the Best In Show ring at the WDS in Bratislava and watched with excitement the Qualifying Round of the Eukanuba World Challenge taking place last Sunday.

Just before BIS judging, Jenny Hall’s Northgate’s As You Like it from Sweden won the BIS title, the Eukanuba World Challenge qualifying EWC heat took place. The three well known judges selected three fantastic dogs to represent their countries in the forthcoming Eukanuba World Challenge taking place in Long Beach this December.

The Eukanuba World Challenge has become a high profile event in the three years since its inception. Hans Muller President of the FCI commented “This qualifying heat is a welcome addition and an important part of the competition and we are delighted that it is being held at the FCI World Dog Show”.

Fifteen dogs representing their selected countries from around Europe were presented to FCI all breed judges, Horst Kliebenstein from Germany, Rui Oliveira from Portugal and Espen Engh from Norway who initially selected nine dogs. These nine dogs were evaluated by FCI all breed judge, Stefan Sinko. Ultimately he selected three finalists in no particular order. These three dogs secured a place to compete in one of the four non geographical sections at the Eukanuba World Challenge 2009 in California in December.

The selected dogs were the greyhound Multi Ch Estet Classic Glamorous from Estonia, owned by Olga Gorbatsjova & Oleg Galiakberov; the Alaskan Malamute Multi Ch Sno Quest’s King of Landwood from Malta owned by Denis Ciappara and Ivan Calleja and the Siberian Husky Mutli Ch Tomika’s Northwest Passage from Slovenia owned by Maja Golob.

Outstanding

Zbyszek Kalenik, External Relations, Eukanuba says “We are looking forward to seeing these three outstanding dogs compete in Long Beach where they will join many other great top winning dogs at the Eukanuba World Challenge 2009. Eukanuba is in an enviable position having a partnership of excellence with the FCI the AKC and a working relationship with many of the Kennel Clubs around the world. With the working co-operation of these organisations the Eukanuba World Challenge is established as a unique and major event in the world of dogs”.
Many presidents and representatives of the Kennel Clubs were in attendance at the World Dog Show including the AKC Chairman, Ron Menaker said “The American Kennel Club is pleased to host the Eukanuba World Challenge at the AKC / Eukanuba National Championships and we are delighted with our partnership with the FCI and Eukanuba in this outstanding event”.

At the Eukanuba/ FCI Judges dinner a lottery determining which countries would be in each section was held. Ron Menaker and Hans Muller had the honour of selecting and opening the small globes containing the countries’ names. As each globe was opened a country was revealed and placed in a section until all countries had been allocated.

The four section judges will be: Section One - Carla Molinari (Portugal); Section Two - Greg Eva (South Africa); Section Three -Roberto Velez-Pico (Puerto Rico) and Section Four - Sergio Lopes Meira DeCastro (Brazil).

Section 1: Ireland, USA, Finland, South Africa, Winner of FCI European Show, Slovakia, Mexico, South Korea, Estonia (European QD), Malta (European QD) and Switzerland.

Section 2: Germany, France, Norway, Hungary, Spain, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Portugal and Japan.

Section 3: Austria, Philippines, United Kingdom, Sweden, Winner FCI Americas Show, Slovenia (European QD), China, New Zealand, Brazil and Poland.

Section 4: Puerto Rico, Winner FCI Asia Show, Czech Republic, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Taiwan, Uruguay and Netherlands.