NEWS BY EURO NEWSROOM

75.000 Spectators at Ice Skating Downhill Race 03.03.2007

QUEBEC (Canada) The “Red Bull Crashed Ice“ in Quebec saw the victory of the Canadian Kevin Olson on Saturday evening. 75.000 spectators watched this exciting mix between ice hockey, boardercross and downhill race on a 500m-long artificial ice track with jumps, banked turns and steep sections of up to 45 degrees inclination.

More than 1000 ice hockey players had participated in the qualifications in ice arenas all over Canada, 120 were invited to Quebec for the time trials and 64 made it into the finals. In this first new sport of the millennium (“The Independent“, London) athletes compete head-to-head in heats of four with the fastest two advancing to the next round.

A 2500m2-large cooling carpet, 40.000 kg of crushed ice and more than one km of arena boards, partially with transparent shielding, were required for the special race track in the center of Canada’s oldest city. This is the eighth event of its kind, the venues of previous contests include Stockholm, Minnesota, Prague and Moscow, the next race will take place on March 17th in the city center of the Finnish capital Helsinki.

Free images for editorial use: Chris Pondella, Ian Hylands and Xavier Dachez for Sports&News (File Info)