;)
The
World Guppy Contest 2003
From November 20 to 23 the 8th World Guppy Contest of the WGA took place
in Santos (Brazil).
In total 326 pairs of Guppies were exhibted (USA 60 pairs, Europe 55 pairs, Brazil 211 pairs). Unfortunately the fish from Japan could not arrive in time because of logistic reasons.
;)
This
large event was only possible with the assistance of some sponsors. But
the Brazilian Guppy Club (our host) succeeded to offer a very professional
Show to the public by many personal contacts. With the help of the company
Ecoanimal and Aquarium Glaser the Guppies were collected in Frankfurt
and were sent directly to Sao Paulo. For the European breeders and for
the work of the World Guppy Association was this support of special importance.
This year the Guppies were not only judged by using the WGA standard. Additionally the American IFGA standard was used as well. A goal of this "double evaluation" was to compare the differences in the results and to have discussions about the standards. So 5 judges, each with one "assistant", had to evaluate all Guppy pairs by using the WGA standard, which is similar in nearly all points to the standard which is applied at the European Show.
| The Judges | The Assistants |  |
| Frank Chang (USA) | Michel Bruno (BR) | |
| Luke Roebuck (USA) | Kleber de Oliveira (BR) | |
| Rodrigo Ziviani (BR) | Rui Polari (BR) | |
| Ömer Gülmez (D) | Sergio Chaim (BR) | |
| Valdu de Carvalho (BR) | Adriano (BR) |
And the different evaluation standards actually showed similar results in many cases at the end of the exhibition. It doesn't matter where the judge is coming from and what his favourite strain is, special Guppies with a very good form and outstanding colors can't hide from a judges eye. Some of the most beautiful Guppies can be seen here:
; "WGC 2003 © Gülmez") |
; "WGC 2003 © Gülmez") |
; "WGC 2003 © Gülmez") |
; "WGC 2003 © Gülmez") |
; "WGC 2003 © Gülmez") |
;)
On
Saturday, November 22nd. the Guppy lovers had the possibility to attend
a seminar. Ömer Gülmez, president of the WGA, gave for the first
time a view inside of German and Asian breeding rooms, Guppy shops and
exhibitions to the interested breeders with videos. Afterwards Luke Roebuck
from the USA showed a nice PowerPoint presentation. In this the way from
the Wildguppy to the Highbreed-Guppy was explained and finally an overview
of the different standards (tail shapes and color variants) was given.
|
On the late afternoon the judging continued and on Sunday morning the results were evaluated. The Brazilian Guppy friends were amazed how much work had to be done to judge all the entries and also to create a final report out of the data. Surely the assistants were eager to learn, but this kind of evaluation represented also for the hardboiled Guppyfriend a considerable challenge. The more pleasing it was to watch the Americans Luke Roebuck and Frank Chang doing their short "dance" between the rows of tanks. In just 2 hours they had judged all the Guppies by the IFGA standard. The somewhat easygoing Brazilian soul will probably be attracted more to the IFGA standard. |
;) |
;) |
;) |
At about 2 pm it was finaly done. The lucky winners were allowed to receive their trophies. Nobody went out empty. A Brazilian breeder even won the third-best of show. Alexandre Bonfim proved with its well shaped Galaxy Blue Grass that the local scene went through an enormous development since the last World Guppy Contest in Brazil 1999. One hour later the show place was packed. Professional breeders and amateurs awaited eagerly to auction one of the Guppy pairs from the show. While the younger Guppy breeders spent there whole pocket money for foreign Guppys, the older breeders had already pulled out their cheque book. However In the end everyone went home with the Guppy of his dreams. |
;) |
Alexandre Bonfim was so kind to submit us some of the
beautiful Guppy photos of this Exhibition. We would like to thank him
very much and refer to the website of his club "Clube
dos Criadores de Guppy", where you can find additional pictures
of the 8th World Guppy Contest.
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
; "WGC 2003 © Bonfim") |
Special thanks to:
Clube Dos Criadores de Guppy do Brasil, Industria e Comercio de Alimentos Alcon & Psicultura Itaquera and the Sponsors Ecoanimal, Arcadia, Eheim, Aquarista Junior Magazin, Tropical Marin, EPS6 and the Orchid-Park in Santos.