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Half of the 100 competitors who braved one of Europe's toughest sled dog races, the Czech Long Trail, finished the competition that ended Saturday.
"We had exactly 100 competitors, including 80 mushers and 20 skiers pulled by dogs and bikers," AFP Pavel Kucera, the chief organizer, told AFP.
He added that 12 athletes and three bikers had taken part in the 348-kilometer race in five stages, with a total altitude of 9,000 meters.
The rest of the pack, consisting of 11 countries, including Austria, Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands and Serbia, competed on a 215-kilometer track with four stages and an altitude of 7,000 meters.
"Frost, blue sky and beautiful nocturnal walks"
"We had a great start with frost, blue skies, nice night walks, now it is cloudy and there have already been a few snowfalls, so we had all kinds of conditions," said Kucera.
After several hot winters that forced the organizers to shorten the race or even replace the sledges with four-wheel drive carts, Kucera said that this year had "the best conditions since 2004".
"It also had an impact on the mushers, we have a 50% mortality, which means that half of the runners have gone back," said the gray-haired man.
The race called "Sedivackuv Long" in Czech, named after Kucera's dog, Sedivak, who had strayed just before the first race in 1997 and had been shot by a local man.
The winner gets a degree – and can boast of having finished the race, Kucera said.
"You do not do that to win, in fact, you can not win this race, you can only lose."
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