2024: a claim for the throne

Vilnius is quietly yet boldly crowning itself as Europe’s Corgi Capital. Our 2024 Corgi Race shot our low-stature stars into global fame and all tails are still wagging. Videos and images from the event reached an estimated 300 million people worldwide! The BBC put us on TV for a second time — naturally, Britain keeps an eye on its own beloved breed. Reuters, Deutsche Welle, and Fox’s LiveNOW also joined the pack, amazed by our speedy, costumed corgis. Low in stature, giant in heart — Vilnius is racing ahead on a wave of Corgimania!

How did we do it? We added a new Solo Sprint competition. Each corgi runs alone on a track half as long, racing the clock. The sprint starts before the main show, giving every dog three chances to post a fast time. The quickest one picks up great prizes and a direct spot in the Grand Final of the Corgi Race.

The neat trick: the Solo Sprint keeps going during the main event. So any corgi that falls out in its group run can still challenge the stopwatch and earn that place in the final. The crowd loved the twist — paws pranced and happy barks rang out.

What else was new? The event went international — corgis from the Baltics, Poland, Ukraine and Finland joined the fun. One out of every three of our 100 participants came from abroad, and that made us very happy. Also we introduced two new presenters. They were a bit weird, but did a great job!

The costume contest was our best so far. Highlights included a carrot-costumed corgi, a “Corgibus,” a miniature food-courier, a pint-sized Corgi-Batman, and even the Granny from Little Red Riding Hood on four paws.

The main attraction was still the Corgi Race itself — 14 runs, two semifinals, and a Grand Final where the winner was decided by photo-finish. We’d never seen so much racing — or such fierce focus. Then came the famous Run 9, where the corgis forgot about speed, formed a playgroup mid-track, and rolled around in pure joy. We tried to make them start several times, but nothing worked… That spontaneous puppy party stole the show and reminded us all why dogs have our hearts.

And the Grand Final? This is how close and majestic it was (0.03 seconds to be exact):