New record - participants from 10 nations!

Already 5 months before Finnmarksløpet 2005, a new record in the race’s history has been reached. In 2006 German-Swedish Katy Meyer (photo) will be joined with and have to compete against participants from 10 different nations. Till now 67 mushers have signed up for the race. 28 in the 1000 km long 14-dog teams, and 39 in the 8-dog teams that race 500 km. Among the teams there are 40 veterans and 27 rookies.

Director of Alta Sled Dog club, Jan Gunnar Vian is very excited about the large list of participants.

- It is with great pleasure I notice the large interest almost two months before the time-limit to register. To know that we’ll have participants from 10 different nations this time pleases us even more. This shows that Finnmarksløpet is a race also for international participants. In comparison it is worth mentioning that Iditarod has participants from only five nations.

Over time Finnmarksløpet has built an international reputation and mushers know that it is the most extreme race one can compete in, even though it is not the longest. While visiting the Finnmarks-conference this fall, Robert Sørlie who has won both Finnmarksløpet and Iditarod claimed that Finnmarksløpet is the most extreme of the two due to weather, climate, trails and lack of predictions in Finnmark.

- I am really looking forward to March and an exciting competition, says a happy Jan Gunnar Vian, who himself is among the competitors.

NEW START: Eirik Nielsen startet out as # 2 in 2005 and is one of the local mushers who is ready
to start also in March 2006. He’ll get more competition than ever.

Hanne Rosenberg, Executive Manager of Finnmarksløpet AS is also very pleased with the response from the racers. These days she is very busy negotiating with collaborators and sponsors of the race and registers that time flies and that it is not too long until the race starts!