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Kamchatka's dog sled race: The longest one of a kind

Russia has applied for including the Beringiya-2018 race in the Guinness World Records

© Yury Smituik/TASS

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. A traditional dog sled race in Kamchatka, dubbed Beringiya (name comes from the Bering Strait), is included in the Russian Book of Records as the longest race of the kind, the regional government’s press service said on Friday.

In 2018, the route was over 2,100 km.

"If you look at maps, (the route is) 2,100 km, and GPS shows it is 2,101km," the press service quoted the Book’s Chief Editor Alexei Svistunov as saying. "As for the Russian Book of Records, I as its Chief Editor for the recent 29 years, can say for sure the record is registered!. I fixed it yesterday when we learned our mushers had made it."

Read also

Dog sled race in Kamchatka, Chukotka may become world’s longest

"And today, I have confirmed it, based on GPS data, on the electronic maps and after talking to the mushers," he added.

Russia has applied for including the Beringiya-2018 race in the Guinness World Records.

The dog sled race began in 1990 with a route of only 250km. In 1991, the race was in the Guinness World Records: the route was 1.98 thousand km.

Beringiya-2018 featured nine representatives of Kamchatka, five - of Chukotka and one - of Moscow. Twelve snowmobiles with judges, doctors, vets and a technical crew followed the mushers. The race’s winner, Valentin Levkovsky, comes from Kamchatka, a musher from Moscow, Vyacheslav Demchenko won the silver, and another musher from Kamchatka, Andrei Semashkin took the bronze medal.

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