Final Result of Cart European Championship 2014 - Vének, Hungary

VENEK – HUNGARY
21st -23rd november 2014
FISTC  European Championships Cart
Third day

Once again on this third day we had an excellent weather, slightly cloudy and cold. Trails were excellent like in previous days so everything was perfect for the dogs for this exciting final day.
The competition was tough and on this third day several changes happened in many classes.
In middle distance O, Jana Henychova (CZ) wins the title with no surprise, but the change came from Manfred Komac (A) who gets the Silver medal, passing Gerald Schinzel (A) who finishes at the third place due to a broken wheel on his Cart. In Mid A, Roman Habasko (CZ) is the champion with no surprise. The surprise (but was it really a surprise ?) came from Filippo Piccinini (I) who had the clever tactic and on this third day was able to pass Romana Guregova (CZ) and win the Gold medal and the title in B class, while in C class Martin Brzek (CZ) won the title.

Quite some changes happened also in Sprint categories. In A Zsofia Verla (HUN) was able to be fast enough to fill the 15" gap she had with the first and so she won the race and got the Gold medal with an advance of 29" on Jean Claude Peru (F), the bronze medal going to Knud Schmolz (DK). In B1, the Gold medal goes to Maros Litvaj (SK) and in B2, as usual, nobody was able to even follow Bernd Sauerhöfer (D) and his Greenland dogs. In C1, Jana Zemcakova (SK) lost her first place for 9", and the French Gérard Pascal gets the Gold medal and the title. In C2, Zdenek Piskac (CZ) were able to win the category with 1" advantage on the second Vladimir Vrastil (CZ), really a beautiful race. In D1, Igor Pribula (SK) won the title, while in D2, Sasha Hasenauer (A) won the title, the young junior Samuel Horbal (SK) finishing 11" after him.

In Bike 2 dogs men, Andrej Drabik (SK), Thomas Reuter (A) and Oleg Tarazanov (RUS) are on the podium; in Bike 2 dogs women, Elisabeth Smejkal-Hayn (A) is first, Sabine Wohlfahrt (I) is sencond and Tompay Böjtösne (HUN) completes the podium. In Bike 1 dog men the podium is 100% Slovak with Igor Stefan first, Roman Reistetter second and Patrik Lucansky third. In Bike 1 dog men 2, Salvatore Fogliano (I) wins the title with his Alaskan Malamute ans Szilveszter Tulipan (HUN) is second with a Samoyed, third Emamnuel Carlod (F) with a Malamute. There has been a strong competition in Bike 1 dog women, category won by Sixtine Roussel (F), while for the second place Evgeniia Silicheva (RUS) was 8" in front of Evgenyia Bogdanova (RUS).

The was also strong competition in all scooter categories. The scooter 2 dogs class was won by Sebastian Astelbauer (A) who was able to catch Jiri Kubelka (CZ) who finished second at 5" only, Didier Fleury (F) finishing 3rd. The Scooter 2 dogs Junior Class was won by a fantastic Alexey Tarazanov (RUS). The Scooter 1 dog 1 class was won by the young French girl Juliette Fouarge and in the Scooter 1 dog 2 the winner was Gabor Rosner (HUN) and his Greenland dog who got his second European Champion title after the one he got in Farra d'Alpago.
Then we had the Canicross categories in which the participants were starting at real interval time. In CC 2 dogs women, Sylvia Perl (A) got the Gold medal, Blanka Csizmadia (Junior) took the Silver medal and Rebecca Sordje (SRB) the Bronze one. Canicross 1 dog men was again a Slovak story, Michal Ivanco being first, Jan Neger, second and Marcel Matanin third. Canicross 1 dog women was won by Edina Koris (HUN) and Canicross 1 dog junior by Tonda Smaus (CZ).

Then it was time to congratulate the organisers of these exceptional championships. The major and the Village of Venek first for the quality of the overall organisation and their welcome appreciated by all participants, as well as the Hungarian club, ESZKSK, who made a fantastic job.

The pricing ceremony starting with nice folkloric dances from the young children of Venek was then another nice part of these championships. and finished with the winning by the Danish musher Mikkel Buuge of a beautiful new sled !

Finally from the point of view of many delegates, ESZKSK and Venek succeeded in organising one of the best FISTC European Championships. Most mushers and all their dogs enjoyed it and the races were of a very high quality. It was also time to thank them all and particularly those countries who were participating for the first time like Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as Russia who came with four mushers who all got medals !

Now, no doubt than next year in Denmark we will have the next Cart Championships of the same very high quality !