The setting was particularly fitting as the Border Collie takes its name from the Scottish Border region. 听
Competitors travelled from 34 countries across five continents, with Eduardo Jaramillo Gajardo, a dairy farmer from Temuco, Chile, making the longest journey 7,165 miles with his dog Sweep. 听
A welcome parade, led by a flock of Huntington sheep and a local school pipe band, marched down the road and onto the field followed by primary school flag bearers, the participating handlers and their dogs. 听
With 358 runs across four days, including the semi-final and finals, spectators had the chance to watch some of the world's finest handlers and dogs at work. Three fields of singles were run concurrently on each of the first two days, with the top seven handlers qualifying from each field of forty-three. On Saturday the forty two semi finalists, including nine women, took centre stage on field one, competing for slots in the sixteen place final.听
Sixth to run, Tom O'Sullivan and North Hill Tess from Ireland, had the first complete circuit and led the field on 457 points out of a possible 550 till just before lunchtime. David Cole from Devon, representing England and his alternate dog Aristos Juno stepped up to the plate at run 21 with a perfect outrun and reasonably low scores across the board. 听
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They remained in top position going into the final, pushing Tom and Tess into second place. Three women made the final sixteen line-up: Anna Edbom from Sweden with Danakims Sky, Susanne Lejuez of the Netherlands and Angie Driscoll with Kinloch Carlos, representing Wales. Angie had an amazing finish to her run with a clean shed and flawless pen. She scored 611 points and took third place on the podium. Irishman Dean Mcauley was the only person to qualify into the final with two dogs, Jack and Joe. Joe rose to the occasion with a decent start and a polished finish to secure 665 points and the runner up position in the World Championship. Dean and Jack came fifth behind German Hendrick Kienker and Todd in fourth. 听
But the day belonged to Welshman David Howells and Wyverne Pip, who out classed the competition with quality lift and fetch points for both packets and a faultless shed and reasonable pen. First to the post in the World Brace event was Scottish National Champion, Skye man Seumas Campbell, teamed with Shadwell Ceit and Queen. They held pole position on 438 points until the twelfth competitor, Irishman James McCloskey, running Dollar and Oak Bruce, completed on 456 points. Oak Bruce had zeros on the outrun and lift and a perfect pen. 听
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Dog trialling die-hard Kevin Evans took the final slot of the day number sixteen on the field. With a fairly young pairing Kemi Ids and Valley View Dan, both just three years old, the Welsh trio edged six points ahead to win the inaugural World Brace Championship on 461 points with McCloskey and Campbell in his wake. Scotsman Peter Martin with Holly and Stella was fourth and Brazilian Charlei Battisti with Astro and Tora was fifth. 听
Young handlers, numbering twenty-three from thirteen countries, competed for the new glass trophy in memory of local lad George Crawford of Melrose. Jack Howells and Cydros Boss from Wales set the bar high with 341 in run one and remained unbeaten in the heats. 听
Belgian Joren De Bruycker and Dot qualified in second place on 338 and Nahuel Yaben Silva from Uruguay was the third handler into the final with Verusa Del Templao on 328.听
Rusa qualified at number five in the top ten in Brazil this year. The Howells achieved a first with father and son winning their respective classes. Uruguayan Nahuel Yaben Silva and Rusa took second place and the Belgians third. In the teams event, the home nation proudly took third place, France second and Germany first. 听
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The event was a resounding success, despite the wind, with a speed shear and Scottish ceilidh on the weekend evenings.听
Results
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