24th annual Sedivackuv long race sees record turnout

This year’s twenty-fourth year of the extreme sled dog race Šediváčkův long in the Orlické Mountains was finished by 80 percent of competitors.

The race saw a record 80 competitors from ten countries with almost 700 dogs.

The initially planned routes of 300 and 200 kilometers were shortened by the organizers. The shorter track, over 170 kilometers long, had four stages and was completed by over 80 percent of the competitors.

Šediváček’s long is one of the most challenging and longest competitions of its kind in Europe. “It is not a flat race like somewhere in the north (Europe). The team will climb 7500 meters altogether.

This year the fastest musher on the long track is a multiple-time winner of Šediváček’s long Roman Habásko from Podbořany in North Bohemia. He raced the whole route with a 12-member team of pure Siberian husky in 16 hours and 39 minutes. One woman went on the longest track. The Swiss Corinne Brechthold managed it with a seven-member team in 24 hours.

The participants arrived at the finish Saturday after a night bivouac in the wild in Zámeček-Pádolí. Competitors of the longer track had a bivouac from Thursday to Friday in Černá Voda.