The Big Volga Quest of 2020 became a tight and epic battle between the two last men standing. Vyacheslav Demtchenko and Arseny Tyuryumin fought head to head all the way to the finish line, where Demtchenko proved to have the strongest team and took home the title. We have had a chat with the Vice President of the race, Arseny Belorusets, to talk about how Covid-19 has affected dog sled racing in 2021.

“Covid-19 affects travelling affordances and that's the main problem. The obvious thing would be to close the borders. But even with open borders, a lot of mushers will stay in their home countries, because travel is expensive. For many mushers, tourism and hiking with the dogs is one of the ways to earn some money. Due to Covid-19, such activity was paused, and their income decreased. Naturally, we expect more local participants and less number of foreigners at any sled dog race in 2021. This could also prove to be a challenge for QrillPAWS, being an international series.”

Belorusets shares with us some specific changes to the 2021 edition of Volga Quest, to adapt to the special times, and comply with local health regulations.

“On the positive side of things, mushing is one of the most isolated sports as the mushers travel separately for most of the time. They meet only at the checkpoints. In 2021, we will reduce the number of indoor checkpoints for overnight staying. Volga Quest will take place as a traditional long distance race, where the musher will stay and rest with their dog teams. A few number of indoor checkpoints will provide enough place for social distancing.”

In the meantime, we keep our fingers crossed for the virus situation to stabilise all over the planet over the coming months. There are, after all, more important things than dog mushing these days. If we are lucky, we will be able to follow safe and fair dog mushing along the Volga river also this coming winter.