ECH-MD/LT: OSPITALE di FANANO

FISTC MD-LT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011
Fanano ( MO ) - Italy 04/06 March '11

8th of march 2011

European Championships MD/LT
Ospitale di Fanano

Here are the Champions

GOLD MEDALS

Congratulations to all the teams who have participated

Click here to see the final results>>>>>>>>>

Report of the race

Click here to see some picture of the preparation of the trail>>> 1 > 2 > 3 > 4

This is really a strange winter. While in most FISTC Member countries we have had almost no snow and most races have been cancelled since December, in Italy, in Ospitale di Fanano precisely we have had the opposite problem as we were close to being obliged to cancel our Middle and Long Distance Championships because there was... too much snow.

While on Sunday 27 February most of the rece trail was prepared and well packed, but with no more than 40cm of snow, suddenly it started snowing from Monday to Thursdya and we got more than 2.5 metres of snow. In addition the weather conditions were very poor with low clouds, fog and a lot of wind and, as a result, in some parts of the trail, due to the wind, we were facing 7 meters of snow!!

Despite all the efforts put by the local authorities and the members of the FIMSS it became impossible to prepare the original trail. So on Friday we had to find a solution. Under the authority of Olivier Favre and with the efforts made by all parties, it has been possible to offer to the mushers a two days race with 100% security but with two runs of about 20 km per days for the LT, SJ, A and O teams, the smaller classes, C and D doing only one run per day.

Our dogs are not always used to cross other teams or to start for two runs on the same day, but as usual they were able to do even what we did not expect they would do.

Finally all teams were happy after the race and even one of them congratulated the organisers as he found that was the best race he did in his life! We should not forget to mentions Simonetta, the cook, as she pleased all mushers and their family with probably the best musher dinner we ever had.

All the teams that participated should be congratulated for the remarkable behaviour and fair play they showed during the three days of the race, but once again our polar dogs have shown how good they are in all circumstances.

Nobody will forget this race. Now the season is over and the FISTC had its three Championships. We will now immediately start preparing the next season.