Last weekend, January 13 and 14, the exciting and well-attended “DogSport Carnikava” and the World Cup stage in sled dog sports organized by the Latvian Sled Dog Sports Federation took place at Madona’s sports and recreation base “Smeceres Sils”, which was also the Latvian Winter Championship. representatives of Latvia, Poland and Estonia won, informs the representative of the organizers Ivars Bācis.
Along with athletes from Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, several representatives of Latvia also participated, who fought for national championship medals in various categories, because together with the PK stage, there was also the Latvian Winter Championship. As always in winter, there were two categories – sledding and skijoring (a skier connects with a dog), but they were further divided by dog breeds into Open and Nordic classes. The first races were held on Saturday at a distance of 5.4 km, and the second on Sunday, the result being determined by the sum of the races of both days.
The absolute best times of both days (9:53 and 9:43) were shown by the main favorite – world champion Igor Trac from Poland, who won the first places in both the four-dog and two-dog sled Open classes. On the other hand, the victory in the four-dog sled Nordic class was celebrated by Mārtiņš Kristons (KSSK), who once won silver at the world championship, who was second in skijoring in the Nordic class.
The most intense and interesting fight for prizes took place in the women’s skijoring Open class, where Elina Klindžane (DogSport Carnikava) returned with victory after missing last year and repeated her success in 2022. Last year’s winner, Zane Robalde, showed the same time on the second day, but in the two-day total, she was a few seconds ahead of last year’s runner-up, Evia Chernysheva. Gunda Shabanova had a very good debut, who was only three seconds short of the podium, but she thoroughly outpaced the 2023 third place winner Reda Adomaititis from Lithuania.
There was strong competition in men’s skijoring, where Jarmo Nikolajs, who competed in the IBU Cup in biathlon and the Estonian Championship in cycling, won, leaving behind the two previous years’ winners from “DogSport Carnikava”, Fritz Zaržecki and Artur Jakobson. Kaspars Krievs (KSSK) took the second place among the three Estonians in the Open class in skijoring for veterans. On the other hand, Raimonda Ratkeviča (Sniega šuni) was the fastest in the Nordic2 class, while the second and third place went to Anita Reina and Sintija Preis (Sniega šuni) from Liepāja.
Karīna Krūmiņliepa’s (KSSK) two-dog sled in the Nordic class also took care of the prize-winning places for Latvia, as well as Nikolajs Kravcovs (Dodkepu.lv), who won third place behind two Poles in the four-dog Open class.
On the first day after the World Cup competition, mini-pulling took place, where dogs pulled tires in a sprint at high speed, and on the second day, relays took place, where the team consisted of two participants – skijoring and two dog sleds. After each stage, five shots had to be fired in the biathlon shooting range, where a penalty of 15 seconds came for each mistake. In the Open class, the Latvian-Polish duet with Fritz Zaržecki and Jakub Kržminski won in an intense battle, while in the Nordic class the Estonians Silvers Vīra and Erle Hermane remained undefeated.
Competitions could take place with the Latvian Sports Federations Council, Udras Lita and Kasparas veterinary practice “Madona’s beloved veterinarians”, SIA “Bertas nams” and “Josera”, SIA Big Red and “Pupu maiss”, SIA “Garšaugu Maisījumi”, ZS “Bites” , ZS “Saliņas”, SIA “Green Hive”, SIA “Atasco”, SIA “Almarini”, ZS “Ozoliņi”, ZS “Rūķisu teas” support.
Competition organizer Elīna Klindžane: “I am pleased and proud of the work done by the members of our team “Dog Sport Carnikava” in organizing the competition. Every year, the organization of the competition becomes more and more valuable. And maybe the idea born 2 years ago, expressed by the world champion Igors Tracs and the manager of the recreation base “Smeceres Sils” Gunārs Ikaunieks, that we could also organize a European or World Championship in sled dog sports on the “Smeceres Sils” track, is not as impossible as it seemed original to us.”
