At the end of January, the Šediváčkův Long sled dog racing event took place in the Czech Republic, covering a distance of 300 km.

If up until now neither this race nor the distance meant much to many, 29 January 2022 became a landmark day in the history of Latvian sled dog sports. For the first time, Sanita Vīksne, a member of the sports dog club “Sniega suņi”, completed the 300 km distance in the snowy mountains of the Czech Republic with eight Latvian-trained Alaskan Malamutes from the Alaskan malamutes kennel SVII Daragars, becoming the first and only Latvian sled dog athlete to reach the finish line in a race of this distance. Furthermore, she did not simply finish the course but placed second among dog sled teams (officially 3rd place, as cyclists were also included in the group), finishing approximately 3 minutes ahead of her closest competitor, Czech racer Radek Heller.

The Šediváčkův Long (https://czechlongtrail.com/) is one of the most difficult and challenging 200 km and 300 km races in Europe, which few dare to attempt. This is evidenced by the number of teams registered for the race; this year there were 7 teams (by comparison, about 60 teams have registered for the 300 km Polar Distance race in Sweden (https://sphk.se/polardistans/en/welcome-to-polardistans/)). During the race, mushers must spend at least two nights in the mountains with their dogs, regardless of the weather conditions, as well as cross bodies of water and overcome extreme ascents.

The Šediváčkův Long competition was “born” when a group of sled dog enthusiasts in the Czech Republic were looking for a suitable region to organise a sled dog race. The region had to be sufficiently snow-covered, feature significant elevation changes, and “stand out” due to the complexity of the trail profile. After carefully surveying the Eagle Mountains (Orlické mountains), the enthusiasts found an ideal location. In February 1997, experimental races were organised, which were the first sled dog sports competitions in the region. The name “Šediváčkův” itself has a sad origin: the day before the first official race began, two of participant Pavel Kučera's dogs escaped. One of them was a Siberian Husky named Šedivák, who was shot by residents in a distant village. Despite the incident, the race was not cancelled, and since then it has been known as the “Šediváčkův Long”.