ANSUZ team

[eldberg]

Season 2022 review
Part 1

As always we start our season full of hopes! Its Jeras second season, Berkans 5 full season and Fehu is just in development.
The pre-season training was not long, but we had put in work. Main goal was to fight for Ansuz CUp and do well at ECH. Well, lets see how we did...

1st event - May in Lithuania.
I think we started wit the start in SPTF... it was windy, but manageable. But not for Berkans taste... we had miserable first round of 5 points, with slight improvement in second of 16,5.
Jera did even worse... 9 in first and did not run on second... cool
That had set up all ready a failure for the rest of event... Bullseye - Berkans 2 drops and Jera... 14 points with refusal to run at end...
Distance... 50,2m for Berkans and 0 for Jera... just to end the day with misery. Additionally we played Time Trial, but that was even worse. Not a great start... For fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PXtqlZ9qqM
The event was great itself. Latvian Sabīne had finally signed up for a full season. Egijs had a debut and Dagnija and Karina were present, but we were missing Linda, who had taken a hiatus year. Still, it was a start.

2nd event - Dino Zoo Cup Latvia
It was a complete comeback... Berkans did PB at SPTF - 40 points (could have been even a bit more) that placed us 2nd, Jera had no improvement since start of season. Bullseye was better: 43 points and again 2nd, with Jelizaveta and Voit placing 3rd with same score. There was no distance at this event, but we played TimeWarp and Frizgility - Both of them did great at round 1 in FG, but kind of failed on second... Frizgility was for fun and not a result to show much for.
But the main takeaway was Berkans had done what he does at home and a good-ish score at SPTF.

3rd event - Estonia
It was a rather small event, but with some quit good scores. We took the SPTF with caution going for 27m mark. Did it pay off, not sure... we did score 41 points, what is great and had 6 runs with Berkan, and also Jera showed decent runs - 29 points overal. Berkans had scored 2nd place again.
Bullseye - our seasons best 47 points. also nice score for Jera of 35 points.
Berkans surprised with decent jumps and catches in FG - we placed 3rd. It was a fluke of otheres, but medal is medal.
Distance in a quit small field... that was limited to ~70m. We did manage somehow to win, with 58,7m. He did run very very slow... but did the catches.
So, we were back in the season standings and things looked great for the second part of the season... or so it seamed!

[eldberg]

4th event - Lithuania
It was the first event the organizers of this particular event were doing on their won (they did an shared event a year before). There were outside judges, but the field selection and all other things were left to them. And it was poor to put in non swear words. Redesigning the field layout (finding a sub par but playable field), dealing with the wrongly printed score sheets, got on my nerves... and it backfired on my attitude and the scores we did with my dogs. It was just bad... all was bad, dogs did not want to put in the effort to chase the discs. An event to forget. worst scores of the season. I did borrow a dog for Distance and we won, but that was a small consolation.

5th event - Latvia
It probably turned out better then expected. It was the biggest event of the season in terms of participants. Ones of the best overall scores. New records even.
First of all, at home we had gotten back or training field, and that helps a lot in terms of preparation. in SPTF at home we in training do usually 22 rounds. +/-2. but at events its different.
Anyway, Berkans got a score of 28, Jera outscored him with 36. She finaly showed that she might be a 40 point dog too.
At Bullseye Jera outscored Berkan again - 45 vs 40 and got hers first medal in Pro Class placing 2nd. Timewarp - Jera placed 3rd and Berkans much lower as we ducked up the 2nd round. So Jera had 2 medals. Distance... Well, Jera got 48m, that is reasonable and hers best score. Berkans... 0. He just would not chase the discs, and if he would run, he would not put in the effort to catch them. Yes, he is tested, he is not ill of with trauma. He is just with a character - on or off for frisbee on any particular day.
There was a saved surprise, Wunjo after 3 years had been entered to participate. Not with me, but Aigars and for distance only. I had calculated that it will take her 3 runs only, at end it was 4. As a surprise, Aigars also participated with a Whippet and set new Baltic record - 86m in qualification. With Wunjo in Q they placed 2nd (first was a miss, second was 74,7. In semis Wunjo outplayed Marius and in Finals I was outplayed with Voit. I could not get past 63m, as Wunjo set a score of 68m. If not for hers trauma, she would have been top level dog all these past 3 years, even so she is 9 now.
Overall Jera placed a bit surprised 4th! That is the best overall score at LV CH we have don in past 3 years.
So in good spirits we were preparing for Europeans...

[eldberg]

EURO 2022... has to be done some day

[eldberg]

EURO 2022... has to be done some day

[eldberg]

USDDN European Championship 2023

The initial idea was that I will play Fehu, Gustavs (my son) will play Berkans and Additionaly i will also enter Jera for SPTF. But then there was a chance to enter our friend Aigars Ancāns in Distance (Quadruped) event, and you dont say no to that! Such registrations were also submitted in early April and paid. But life makes changes...
First of all Jera has not been playing this season, Berkans got injured and 1 month before the event we adopted a Border Collie. Plans changed... I was still to play Fehu, Aigars was also entered with Fehu in SPTF, I changed one registration to Raido (even so we had 4 weeks of prep time). And the main entry as I said - AIgars and Fehu in Quadruped.

We had couple of practice sessions at home for Aigars and Fehu, they were doing fine, but mostly throwing SuperHeros, not Xtra distance, as Fehu just destroys them. Expensive. Anyway they were doing ~80m catches and 1,5/3 were caught... you basically need 1 out of 3. So, we were hopeful. Were they ready and had perfect understanding of each other. no... But Fehu is physically well trained to do as many runs as it takes for Quad. Aigars had to provide a throw and there was a good chance Fehu will pick it up.
Fast cut to event. Aigars did a qualification throw (no dog), had the furthest distance ended up in Group 3 or C. Our neighbors played in group 1, Gijus making it to final of the group, Marius ended the play in group stage.
Group 3 was opened by Fehu getting a catch of 56,6 (on last try, as first 2 were no catches...). AIgars sometimes forgot to give run out to Fehu, sometimes other stuff. Anyway, that was enough for Group playoffs. First round playoffs were not that bad, as on second try they managed 62m, thus having the best score in group and walking to groups final. They needed a bit more then 52m, but ended with 3 no catches. Again, either Fehu turned wrong or Aigars just made a bit more powerful throw then it was perhaps needed. Throws were against wind, so it was complicated. Whats left? Yep, Last chance round!
Well, since we had the best score of the group, turns out we were last to throw. 16 players in fron made their throws and to advance to finals we needed 56+m. Aigars did a huge swing and Fehu barley got it but it was good: 70,3m. We were in finals, that were to be played Sunday...