Jan Egil Eide started organizing the Norwegian Open, when, about 10 years ago: “The most important competition in Norway was our national championship. The surface was terrible and it was just bad for the sport. I started to think that what if we organized a competition of the competitors’ choice.”

Competitors travel far for quality

The most important thing in the event is quality - as regards the arena, surface, and judges. “We are doing our best to organize a nice, fun and cool competition. We have 4 rings in Kongsvingerhallen, and we usually fix up a 3-day competition, and this year, due to AWC in Sweden, a 4-day event.”

Norway is far away for most and, yet, in the Norwegian Open 2018, competitors from 32 countries participated, including 700 dogs and world class teams. For example, the new world champion in large class, Nicola Giraudi from Italy, was there.

“2018 was the 8th edition of the Norwegian Open, so it has taken some time to get the reputation we have.”

Jan believes that in the end of the day, people really want quality from competitions: “Not only for them, but also for their dogs as regards an excellent surface, safe obstacles and amazing courses by excellent judges. If we can create this every year, I believe people will come despite Norway being far away. And, of course, Norway is a very beautiful country and a lot of people combine Norwegian Open with their holidays.”

Dogs are “crazy good” - fast and well trained

For the first time, the Norwegian Open 2018 was a 4-day event, and this was because of the AWC in Sweden a week earlier. Winners of the finals were in large Anne Lenz and Itzi Bitzi, in medium Nina Gregl and Boom, and in small Eva Lacnakova and Chiqi. See all results.

Jan says that the skill level and speed of the dogs has developed a lot during the last few years: “Dogs are so fast and so well trained. They’re at an amazing level, just crazy good!”

High level of course design - fast, fluid and challenging

The judges came from 6 countries: Sandra Deidda and Vittorio Papavero from Italy, Petr Pupik from Czech Republic, Sari Mikkilä from Finland, Kurt Ove Steinset from Norway, Jocke Tangfelt from Sweden and Zeljko Gora from Croatia.

Jan describes the courses with three words: “Fast, fluid and challenging. Not easy, but a lot of fun. In general, the course designs were of a really high level and I heard so many compliments about the courses. They were fun to run and fun to watch.” Jan hopes and believes that fluid courses with super flow is the direction of future course design. “This is very much according to my taste!”

Jan didn’t have a chance to see all the courses, having the organizer’s responsibilities and tasks to run. However, he picks out three of his favorites: “In particular, I liked the agility open courses from Jocke and Vittorio, such great courses. And Sari’s final course for large dogs, just amazing to watch.”

Jan invites everyone to the Norwegian Open 2019 in October 11.-13. 2019.

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