Ashley Whippet Invitational World Championship Finals

The finals of the Ashley Whippet World Championships took place in a Park that is part of Knott's Berry Farm (Not actually in the amusement park). The field was set from Day #1 which took place in La Mirada. There were 15 competitor teams here to duke it out for the title of Ashley Whippet World Champion! Eight of the teams were from Japan, including two time defending champion Ishida Yoshihiro and Rusty. There were also a number of repeat visitors from the last two years as well. One of my favorite teams is Makoto Koshimizu and Black Labrador "Force". This dogs simply FLIES!!!

Also amongst the talent laden field of disc dogging teams were 7 US teams, three of which were from right here in Southern California. Al Erikson made a statement this year, that practice, practice, practice DOES PAY OFF! And that little dogs rock! He put BOTH of his lil pooches, George and Gracie, into the finals. So that's two of our SoCal representation... Who's the third???

Todd Murnan and Bella rocked onto the national, and international, disc dog scene in just their 1st season of competition. Yes I said first season. I first saw Todd and Bella at the Crusty Classic last year when they took 2nd place in the Intermediate Freestyle Division, behind another hard charging new team of Kirby and Sketch. They have come quite a way in just a year!

Lawrence Frederick and his two amazing pups, Easy Rider & Harley grabbed two of the other spots, Matt Diano & Maggie, and Chris Sexton & Banzai rounded out the American representation. These three handlers are some of the BEST the US has to offer!

The event format would be two rounds of of Freestyle, separated by a round of Toss & Fetch.

After the first round of Freestyle and Toss & Fetch

Lawrence Frederick sat atop the leaderboard with Harley Davidson, and was threatening with Easy Rider in 4th place. The only other US team in the top 6 was Todd Murnan and Bella! Al Erikson was sitting in 13th and 15th due to a couple hiccups in the Toss & Fetch round. There was NO ROOM FOR ERROR in this group.

In the final round, team after team came out and gave great performance after great performance. It was so rough that Todd, in 6th place, had one of his better routines, but still fell a spot to 7th place (in actuality, while his routine was spectacular, Bella did bail on at least two vaults, which I think may have cost him). Al Erikson and George went out and did a near flawless routine, which moved them from 13th to 12th. But, with this much talent, there was not going to be any big jumps.

When it was all said and done we had a champion...

2008 AWI World Champions:

** LAWRENCE FREDERICK AND HARLEY DAVIDSON **

1st Lawrence Frederick & Harley 198.50 Gold Medal + $1500
2nd Yoshihiro Ishida & Rusty 193.00 Silver Medal + $750
3rd Kouchi Nanba & Rey 190.00 Bronze Medal + $500
4th Lawrence Frederick & Easy Rider 189.00
5th Kazunori Chiba & Gaia 181.84
6th Masao Kashiwa & Ginji 181.50
7th Todd Murnan & Bella 180.16
8th Takayuki Muranaka & Ken 176.84
9th Hiroaki Kuroda & Feel 176.82
10th Chris Sexton & Banzai 176.50
11th Makoto Koshimizu & Force 175.32
12th Al Erikson & George 173.34
13th Matt DiAno & Maggie 172.50
14th Kozuhiro Takaki & KU 161.18
15th Al Erikson & Gracie 160.34

Lawrence's acceptance speech was heartfelt and sincere. He shed a few tears, and asked his wife to come up and share the moment with him. He thank her for all her support, and said to her, "I Love You!"

Looking forward to next year!

Thanks to Alex Stein for having, as Todd calls them, Ball o Brass and taking his pooch out onto the field in Dodger Stadium in front of a National audience and starting the world of Disc Dogging. But more thanx goes out to Ashley Whippet for being a brave and loyal pooch. And for staying healthy and unhurt during the days that followed until she was reunited with Mr. Stein.

Thanx to Hero for sponsoring a great end of year tradition, and to Chris Sexton who always manages to land the speaking roles at these gigs.

And of course to the judges and staff. The few names I have off the top of my head are Jim Safford, Ed Jab (his name is too long), and Chuck Middleton.