we kindly inform you about the following things.

1. As we mentioned before, FISTC Board started to work on organising the FISTC Sprint and Distance Championships together with the FBMF (Belgian Federation) and a local mushing club in Contamines Montjoie, France. The planned date was 10-12 March (the village is at an altitude of 1164 meters, at the feet of Mont Blanc, so the snow was almost guaranteed). By the second week of January we had all the necessary permissions, and the consent of the mayor of the village. On 15th of January our president had a final video call with the mayor who informed us a landslide destroyed part of the parking lot intended to be used as a stake out.

2. In the middle of January the only one possible backup location was Millegrobbe. There was/is enough snow, the FIMSS was ready to be the organiser of our Championships. As soon as we got this offer we informed the Delegates of FISTC member countries and asked their cooperation to send us the expected number of participants. Until the deadline they informed us around 42 possible competitors. Because of the lack of interest we extended the deadline and published the above news on our website and also here, on the Facebook site of FISTC.

3. The reactions to the Facebook post can be classified into 3 groups:

- a part of the commenters were sad and disappointed as they wanted to race against each other on our World Championship, they wanted to enjoy this community and run on snow;

- another part was against the location and the organisers because of what happened in the past - let us not comment on these reactions;

- and there was a group who criticised the communication of FISTC, "it's absurd FISTC starts to advertise a Championship 3 weeks before its date". If someone is able to read he can see from the previous points what happened in the past months. If we had started to advertise the Championship in Contamines Montjoie with the scheduled date - as people are people - we are sure most of those who wanted to compete there, they would started to book their accommodations, although the race were not confirmed, so in the middle of January the would had to cancel their reservations and lost their deposits. We apologize for not publishing plans instead of facts...

4. Last but not least: FISTC - as well as most of the other international sports federations - has never organised any European or World Championships. Just like in other sports the member countries/associations/federations/clubs have the right to organise these events, under the supervision and patronage of the international federation, following the system of rules and requirements of the given federation.

See you at our upcoming Cart World Championship in Abertamy, Czech Republic.

Your Board