We're often asked what the different awards are at a koi show, what they mean and how they are arrived at so we thought we'd put together this quick guide on just that!
Awards at koi shows are broken down into 3 distinct categories and follow the judging procedure as explained below.
Default Awards
The first set of awards are know as the 'In Class' or '1st round' awards and are awarded to the top 3* koi in ALL of the 13 Show Classes and ALL Size Classes. As an example, if there are 20 Kohaku in size 3 these would represent the overall class of 'size 3 Kohaku', the judges will compare and judge all 20 koi before deciding on the top 3, these will be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd in class (Size 3 Kohaku). The judges will continue to judge ALL the classes to obtain a 1st, 2nd and 3rd in all of them where koi numbers allow, in the situation of their being only 1 or 2 koi in a class, the koi in question will be judged against each other to find the 1st & 2nd.
Once the judges have their best in class koi they will move on to what is referred to as the 'Best in Size Overall' or '2nd round' awards, at this stage they will be looking at all the awarded koi in round one and deciding on the very best koi in the size class (size 3 for example) irrespective of variety or class. They are once again looking for just 3 koi and these will be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd in size overall.
The final round of awards is refered to as either the '3rd round' or 'The Majors', the awards to be won here are Baby Champion, Young Champion, Adult Champion, Mature Champion and Grand Champion. At this stage the judges will be comparing the best in size winners against each other as such:
The last 'default' allocated award is that of Jumbo, this award is seldom judged as it is based simply on the length of the koi and is awarded to the longest koi in the show. The Jumbo award is only judged where there are more than one koi of the same length being exhbited, in this instance the judges will decide.
* In some instances first round awards will be limited to 1st & 2nd
* The Grand Champion koi is often chosen before any other judging is completed as the koi is then taken out of contention for any other award.
Exceptions to the rules
There are often exceptions to be found to this awards list, in the case of closed show; a closed show features only koi exhibited by the organising clubs members.
In shows that don't use all 7 size classes, it is typical that the Baby Champion will go to the best in size 1 koi, Young Champion to the best in size 2 etc.
At the All England Koi Show there is an additional award called Superior Champion, this award was brought about in 2013 when it was noticed that some very very good size 6 fish were being overlooked for a major award as the Mature Champion award typically went to a size 7 fish. Therefore, the award structure was edited to reflect the need, and as such the Mature Champion award now goes to the best in size 6 fish, with the Superior Champion award going to the best in size 7 fish.
At the BKKS National Koi Show there are other additional awards, i.e the Shinkokai Award (awarded on quality alone), alongside a Chairman's Sakura (exceptional Non Go-Sanke in size 6) and Miyabi (exceptional Go-Sanke in size 6), introduced for similar reasons as noted above.
Additional Awards
Other awards vary year by year by typically will include some or all of the following:
