Sled sprint; what's that exactly?

The sprint classes use from 4 to 12 dogs. 4-dog, 6-dog, 8-dog and open class teams race across distances of 8 km, 12 km, 16 km og 24 km. During the WCh in Holmenkollen the 4-dog and 8-dog teams will compete.

The dogs used in this kind of races range from purebreed vorsteher, greyster as well as bird houds and husky mixed breeds, all of which share one main feature: enormous capacity. For the dogs it is important to be both fast and enduring. We're talking high speed; a sprint team can race at an average speed of 33 km/h across distances of 10-15 km. That is very fast for pulling dogs.

In the sprint classes teams race with sleds weighing just under 10 kg. These sleds cannot be much used for practical things such as transporting people or luggage, but they are cool too look at! Also, they have skis underneath and since the glide matters much for the competition results, glider is used to make them glide fast.

The Olympic Mass Start will take place in Holmenkollen Saturday. The dogs love to compete side by side, and this excercise is run for both 4-dog and 8-dog teams. This form of competing requires a lot of effort from the dogs, but it also requires constant consentration and tactical abilities on the part of the contestant on the sled. Holmenkollen offers a lot of hills, and this means that the human contestants too will have to work really hard, kicking and running at times. This will be very exciting!

The Norwegian national broadcasting corporation NRK will show this race on the TV channel NRK1 on Saturday 26 March at 18:00 hrs.