A new sports champion with the speed and fancy footwork to rival any sporting hero has helped Britain to secure a gold medal at a world sports championship of a rather different kind, H&C has learned.

Following hot on the tail of other recent sporting successes for Great Britain - from the World Cup Qualifiers to the Ashes – Dizzy, the Border Collie from Reading, has just shot Britain to victory in the FCI World Agility Championships for dogs.

At just three-and-a-half-years-old Dizzy (whose kennel name is, appropriately, Ag Ch Raeanne’s Flipping Heck), astounded onlookers as she completed two rounds of the agility course in just 61.71 seconds (25.89 for the jumping round and 35.82 in the agility round) – a total of 4.4 seconds faster than her nearest rival. She beat 80 dogs, who had qualified from all over the world, to be awarded the gold medal for medium sized dogs, the first time Great Britain has won a gold medal for an individual dog at the event.

You can watch Dizzy’s, and her owner Natasha Wise’s, winning moment on YouTube.

Dizzy’s wasn’t the only four-legged success; in the team events, the British team of large dogs consisting of three Border Collies – Tom (with owner Jackie Gardner), Kes (with owner Sue Rolfe) and Bold (with owner Lee Windeatt) - scooped the bronze medal, narrowly missing out on the top spot to Russia, who won gold, and Italy who took silver.

Agility is the fastest growing dog sport in the UK, with an estimated 24,000 dog athletes and hundreds of thousands worldwide. Increasingly, it is being seen as a way to not only beat the obesity crisis in our dogs – who are becoming overweight as a result of their owners’ inactive lifestyles – but as a way to ‘fight the flab’ in their owners as well. It is estimated that humans can burn up to 270 calories in a one hour agility training session.

Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club spokesperson, said: “Dizzy and the rest of the British agility team have really done us proud. Their performance was world class and Britain now has another victory to add to its list of sporting achievements this year.

“Agility is the fastest growing dog sport and watching the footage from this year’s Championship it is easy to see why. The sport is great fun, open to all, and an excellent way to keep both dog and owner fit and healthy. We hope that these dogs and their handlers will be an inspiration for others who think that they would like to get involved in the sport.”

Speaking about her winning moment with Dizzy, Natasha Wise, said: “Dizzy is a dog in a million, I am just so choked up that we have won. She hates being cuddled, she’s just too cool for school, but I hugged and hugged her anyway, she’s such a star!

“She is such a character and was in her element at the competition. I have taught her to bark to clapping so she was just barking all through the opening ceremony and after she ran her course, because of the rapturous applause.”

Team GB at the FCI World Championships was sponsored by Eurotunnel, who ensured that the sports stars all travelled back to the UK in style.

For more information about agility and the Kennel Club’s Fight the Flab with Fido campaign, visit www.kcagility.org.uk.