On a beautiful trail, with excellent but warm and rainy weather, the Belgium team performed well in  the FISTC European Cart Championships 2010 at Grolloo the Netherlands.

Our lady’s performed well in ther classes.

Livina finished 4th, in a very tough C1 class out of 19 starters. With her four dogs, she had to push very hard to keep her ranking. She finished only one second from third place.

Nadine finished 3rd in the Scooter 1 dog class with her Alaskan Malamute.

There were not that much spectators to witness Team Belgium’s performance, but we had some Belgian supporters handlers around, cheering for our athletes, and there was of course Marjolein, shooting pictures of the teams along the trail.

Denis Deluycker performed great as well in the C2 (4 dog heavy breed) class, finishing on a strong 3th place out of 12 starters. With only 30 seconds behind Horst Klank with his samojeeds. Jean –Pierre and Alex finished 7th and 8th with only four seconds difference.

In the D2 class Harry Braeckmans finished first and he is for the second time FISTC European Champion. Also Bart Smets in the Pulka arrived on the first place.

Both Gerry Pollenus A1 and Luud Ubaghs B2 maintain their options open a the first heat to a podium place. The second manche was run in somewhat harder conditions on muddy trail. Ther teams ran slower than day one.

In the Class Bike 1 dog Rudiger was placed 6^th in the first heat only nine seconds behind  Austria. In the second heat after 2 km he had closed the gap and finished 5^th with one minute advanced.

In the Scooter 2 dogs Eddy Martens with his Alaskan Malamutes was placed 10^th and Jean Marie Pignon 11^th with his Siberian husky’s.

The 2010 World Championship will be known as the most competitive and internationally flavoured event in history of the FISTC Cart race. Overall, Team Belgium is performing great, with certainly some podium opportunity. In a European Championship with nine participating european country’s and more than 136 starters, this is a superb result for the Belgiums!

 Team Belgium was not swept away, quite the contrary

With special thanks to Team Belgium from the FISTC President Franco Mannato for the sportif behaviour and performance of ther teams.

Special thanks also to all Belgium mushers for this excellente weekend and ther performance from the MBEL Board.

Gerry Pollenus A : 4th place

Luud Ubaghs B2 : 4th place

Livina Devillers C1 : 4th place

Dennis De Luycker C2 : 3rd place 

Jean-Pierre Van Den Broeck C2 : 7th place

Alex Couwenberg C2 : 8th place

Harry Braeckmans D2 : 1th place  Gold medal

Rudiger De Pauw  Bike 1 dog : 5th place

Eddy Martens Scooter 2 dogs : 10th place

Jean- Marie Pignon Scooter 2 dogs : 11th place

Nadine Notele  Scooter 1 dog : 3 rd place 

Bart Smets Pulka : 1th place

In less than 14 hours from now, the participants on the FISTC European Cart Championships arrived at the racingplace near Grolloo Drenthe the Netherlands. A delegation from Team Belgium has gladly accepted to participated on this Championship in partnership with  FBMF. The teammembers are GERRY POLLENUS – A1,LUUD UBAGS – B2,LAVINA DEVILLERS – C1,J.P V.D. BROECK – C2,ALEX CAUWENBERGHS – C2,DENNIS DE LUYCKER – C2,J.M. PINION – Scooter 2,MARTENS EDDY – Scooter 2,DE PAUW RUDIGER – Bike 1dog

This time it is Mushing Holland Sleddog Club who is organizing this Cart Championship, and under the flag of the FISTC and this will take place on the 21st and 22nd of November.

We now have the chance to race in the beautiful woods and nature of Staatsbosheer ‘t Uteringskamp on very flat trails suitable for good speed.

Please find all other info on www.mushingholland.nl

The Board of MBEL wishes all Belgian mushers a good Championship.

Danny participated in the Polar Distans, a very though long distance (“long trail”) in Northern Sweden. Danny drives Alaskan Malamutes and two Siberian Huskies.

After a very fast first leg, Danny got lost and lost a few hours before getting back on track. He finished the 160km trail, while probably he did more like 190km … what a superb achievement! Our nation’s pride in Long Trail did it once again! Congratulations Danny & Myriam!

Check out www.polardistans.com

Finally, the hard work and years of preparation payed off. Joël and Ingrid achieved the highest degree of perfection there is in purebred sleddog racing: the title of World Champion in the Open class.

The 2008 World Championship will be known as the most competitive and internationally flavoured event in history to date. With over 250 mushers from 16 countries, competition was very hard and unpredictable. Team Belgium was not swept away, quite the contrary.

Joël destroyed the competition in the O class and finished with almost 12 minutes faster overall on the second placed German Rick Göpfert. He started out with 14 dogs, and ran the last manche on Sunday with 12. He had three clean runs on a perfect trail.

Livina and Werner finished 11th and 15th respectively, in a very tough D1 class out of 24 starters. With only two dogs each, they had to push very hard to keep their ranking. Tim finished 4th in the D2 class with his 2 Alaskan Malamutes, only 53 seconds (total time) behind number 3!

Denis Deluycker was placed fourth after two days of racing in the C2 class. With his four Greenland dogs, he had a slower third run and lost one place. Freddy Guillaume ran in the C1 class with 4 Siberian Huskies, finishing 36th out of 39 finishers.

 Check out the final results here!

Congratulations to all mushers and many thanks to the handlers, sponsors & supporters!

Guy & Patrick ran the distance class (D2-2) and finished 3rd and 4th on 5 starters. 

Meanwhile, Sam & Dries are running the Iditarod. Follow the race updates here. Danny Bulens will start in the Polar Distans tomorrow.

Belgians do mushing? Sure they do!

The second manche was run in somewhat warmer conditions on fresh snow. Almost all teams ran slower than day one. Team Belgium performed well, defending their places.

Joël once again ran the fastest time and clocked of another 5 minutes better than his main opponent. Freddy lost two places finishing 36th. Livina lost one place, finishing 11th, less than one second behind the 10th place. Werner lost one place as well, finishing 16th. Both Livina and Werner ran in D1.

Denis defended his fourth place in C2 with success, closing the gap to number three to only four seconds. Tim equally kept fourth place in D2, only 30 seconds  behind number three. Both Denis and Tim maintain their options open to a podium place … to be continued!

On a beautiful trail, with excellent but warm weather, Team Belgium performed well in day one of the World Championship 2008. Given that the first race day is on a week day, there were not that much spectators to witness Team Belgium’s performance, but we had some Belgian supporters around, cheering for our athletes, and there was of course Kirst Vanmelle, shooting pictures of the teams along the trail.

As expected, Joël put down a great performance in the Open class (the largest sprint class). He started and finished with 14 dogs, and had an uneventful run. With a first place and a time more that four minutes faster that the next oponent, Joël will clearly be the favourite for the title.

In the C1 (4 dog Siberian Husky) class, Freddy Guillaume finished 34th out of 43 starters. Freddy opted for a safe and sure run, since he is still adapting to the high speeds this team puts out. We can expect an improvement for sure in the next days!

Denis Deluycker performed great as well in the C2 (4 dog heavy breed) class, finishing on a strong 4th place out of 14 starters. With only seconds to the third runner, he is eager to aim for the podium.

In the D1 class (2 dog Siberian Husky) Livina Devillers finished 10th and Werner Doms 15th out of 25 starters. In the D2 (2 dog heavy breed) class, Tim Bosseloo finished 4th out of 9, only a few seconds behind 3th and 2nd runners as well.

Overall, Team Belgium is performing great, with certainly some podium opportunity. In a World Championship with a record number of participating nations (17!) and more than 250 starters, this is a superb result to hope for!

Werner, Tim & Freddy arrived in Paldström near Gafsele with their handlers. They are staying at Joël’s place, together with German Christoph Diehl. As most habitants of the Gafsele area are (foreign) mushers, it is quite busy at the starting area of the Gafsele trail each day. We all trained on the respective distances in near to perfect conditions. Lots of snow, cold but not too cold … what more can you whish for? 

Livina & Denis are currently on the road, arriving in Sweden today and they will stay the night in Göteborg. Tomorrow, everybody will make the trip to Asarna. Team Belgium has rented the nearest house to the starting area of the World Championship.

You can check out the (impresive!) starting list for day 1 here!

“T” is for travel. In less than 17 hours from now, the second bunch of Team Belgium moves north to Gafsele, Sweden to join Joël for a 5 day training period. Thereafter, they drive up to Asarna all together to meet the rest of Team Belgium who arrives directly from Belgium.

Everything is going as planned … and the participants list has simply exploded, with an very international field of mushers.

Meanwhile, Sam & Dries are making the final preparations to enter the 2008 Iditarod, and Danny Bulens is getting ready for the challenging Polar Distans 2008 … all at the same time. Thumbs up for Team Belgium!

Joël is currently training in Gafsele, Sweden. This saturday, Tim, Werner and Freddy will join him for some last shake down runs. After a few days in Gafsele, the team moves west to Asarna to settle for the WSA WC 2008. The rest of the team, Denis & Livina, arrive two days prior race day one. Let’s all chear for Team Belgium! The competition will be hard, the participant list is growing …