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Cool Place, Tough People

Rob Howard / 15.08.2006

Girls dressed in the national costumes of the Sami nation, Sweden and Norway led the 32 competing teams into the opening ceremony of the 2007 World Championships at Hemavan this morning. Among the teams local school children, some also dressed in Sami costume, carried banners for each nation represented and all the teams gathered in front of a stage at the Fjällparken hotel and outdoor sports centre where Race Director and course planner Mikael Nordstrom came on stage to welcome everyone.

After a day of blazing sunshine yesterday it was disappointingly overcast, but the rain held off and an hour long programme of entertainment and speeches began. Nordstrom did little more than say hello and welcome – he would have much more to say to the teams later when he ran through the course.

First on stage were the local Sami theatre group with a performance of drums, and vocals which were uniquely Sami and hard to describe. (It wasn’t singing as there were no words, and it wasn’t humming – more like vocal improvisation.) It set the scene for a few words from Jan Olov Winka of the local Sami association, who welcomed the teams from 14 countries and 4 continents to “the cradle of Lappish people� and the “last colonised area of Europe�.

The 2.5 hour flight over vast expanses of forest and lake to get from Stockholm to Hemavan had already emphasised the fact this race is in a truly remote wilderness and this introduction gave visiting teams a brief insight to Sami culture. “We are surrounded by Europe’s largest nature reserve,� said Winka, “5500 hectares of it and at this time of year people are preparing for the start of the moose hunting season and mushroom picking before the winter.�

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