Once more Gradlyn Kennels Air team has excelled in its rôle as a sponsor repeating its earlier years’ proven sponsorship excellence by again providing uniforms for the six German trainers at the World Championships of the World Union of German Shepard Dogs held this year, in Seville, Spain.
The uniforms themselves bear the Adidas fabrication label but are somewhat different from the warm-up uniforms worn by the German National Football (Soccer) team in order to avoid confusion.
One of the six trainers who traveled to Spain for the international competition with the animals was a supernumerary, Werner Seif, who together with Hans-Joachim Kopp, Sabrina Höfer, Claudia Faller and Nico Kertzinger, also was among the contestants for the five qualifying team slots.
It was last summer that the decision was reached as to who was to wear the German uniform at the 33-nation competition. For the G.K. Air group this meant deep personal involvement with the finalists throughout the preliminaries so that the correct individual measurements for the National Team uniforms could be readily submit for personalized tailoring and delivered on time prior to the team’s departure for the World Championships.
Proper outfitting was only one part of the organizational work demanded of GK. Naturally, the four-footed competitors themselves also needed to travel together with their National Team trainers in the same aircraft.
Health certificates, proper dog transport cages, Customers declarations, and myriad other details all had to be in place, on time for departure day. In order to make the trip as pleasant as possible for all the participants both two- and four-footed alike, two check-in counters were booked and IATA-approved dog transport cages provided by G.K. Air were placed at the Team’s disposal.
According to G.K:’s own team personnel, it could have not gone better and all were visibly impressed with the World Championship’s organizational efforts.
But that was nly the beginning. Thereafter, the competitors first felt the brunt of the significant challenge, if the championship title from the previous year was to be successfully defended: afterall, a full 33 national teams from the other countries had to be beaten if they were to succeed.
It proved to be a very hard task, which ended with the German team taking fourth place following the Finnish, Spanish, and Austrian teams. It was not exactly the result which had been hoped for, yet given the high level of competition, certainly a result with which one could live. After all, one can not always be first; however, this setback provided a strong incentive for next year, namely, that of moving up at least a one place or more.
Regardless of this year’s outcome, G.K. Air certainly looks forward proudly to resuming its sponsorship to Germany’s National Team in the future as ever providing safe, security proper transportation to all teams, and members – win, lose, or draw!
