UKRAINE Champions of WIFC 2017!

After Raund Two Ukraine managed to keep its postions and convincingly won 14th World Ice Fishing Championship! Denis Novgorodskii – second place individually!

Second place or silver goes to the WIFC 2017 host country Latvia, – needless to say what an emotions and congratulations they got! Aldis Varna dot 3rd place individually!

Third place goes to Russia, and their angler Dmitry Eliseev – champion individually!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS!!!

All official results are here

 

Round one

Round one begun with Captain’s meeting and fishing sectors drawn by lot, as well as bait control. As if the existing tension wouldn’t be enough, the weather set its own own challenges of a wide spectrum, the sun, snow, wind, snowstorm, then again the sun, wind, snow… and so on several times within three hours.

Unlike workout days, participants completely switched to race mode, did not talk much, tried not to show the fish they were catching, and made maximum use of the time available for fishing. Three hours passed very intense and fast. With fourth signal, the participants gave their catches to judges and preserving the intrigue returned back to the hotel to prepare for the weighting procedure, which will reveal results of the first round.

Weight-in procedure is one of the interesting part of the championship, when all participants follow result weighting and counting. After first round leading positions are taken by Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania.  Complete results see here.

Damir Shykhotarov, delegate of Ukraine:  Of course, we are glad for today’s results, however, we understand that the gap is not so hudge, and tomorrow some other team can run over us, that’s why we will be preparing for second round again as if from the beginning, not taking into account todays result. I cannot comment on any changes in composition of our team for tomorrow, because we will decide about that in evening’s meeting.

Normunds Grabovskis, captain of Latvian Team: All goes according to the plan. We were working hard to get third or forth place in sector to get stable result for team and about 20 pionts in total. Today we have got two great results and two not so good, but anyhow we are stable. As agreed before, for tomorrow we’ll change one participant, but otherwise no remarkable changes planned in our strategy.

 

 

Second training day, press conference, WIFC 2017 Opening Ceremony

Second training day, press conference and WIFC 2017 Opening Ceremony

The relatively warm weather appearing on the night to Thursday, did not make any significant adjustments. Ice situation remains stable. In places where competition is planned perhaps a bit unusual is access to the ice, which to an inexperienced person might seem amusing, however, with a help of wooden constructions we can reach our spots on practically dry feet. In addition, the thickness and condition of the ice is constantly monitored by the rescuers, which are present at all training and competition days. They examine, measure ice thickness and provide necessary instructions and limitations. Overall, the ice situation is very good.

Also in training process there are no significant changes observed. Some teams chose the tactics to go around the competition sectors to look for the best places and gather information on what and how to act during competitions. Some other teams walked away to the other side of the lake to perform their own inner competition, helping to decide which participants will take part in competition on the first day. Today we have seen aslo some bigger fish, apart from tiny perch some bigger breams made happy USA Team.

Championship goes on according to the plan, the participants look satisfied, getting ready for Opening ceremony tonight and the next training day tomorrow, which will be the last before the competition. Newest weather forecasts show that this night might have degrees below zero, which hopefully will improve access to ice.

 

Insight to press conference, held shortly before Opening Ceremony:

GUNDARS KURZEMNIEKS Latvia Sport Fishing Federation president, Chairman of Organizing Committee of 14th World Ice Fiching Championship – As organizer I’m glad to say that World Ice Fishing Championship is held in Latvia alreaady for the third time. Second time in the history there are forteen teams participating and it is a great pleasure to manage with such a number of contestants and host such a great fishing event. The competition place is Mazais Baltezers, nice lake near Riga. Ice condition is quite good and safe and we have good forecasts that ice situation won’t change and be stable during the competition. I wish fair play and good luck to everyone.

 IGOR CHINYAKOV, FIPSed vice president – I am very glad to be here in connection with fourteenth World Ice Fishing Championship, in which by incident fourteen teams are taking part. Unfortunately, the weather and climate changes occurring on our planet introduces their corrections, which primarily affects winter fishing sport. Despite the fact I want to point out that at the moment we have good ice and competition can take place without concern for athletes’ health and life. Looking back, why this championship is held in Latvia. Originally Bulgaria was chosen as organizers, however, the Bulgarian Sports Fishing Federation was not convinced about the potential quality of the ice and withdrew from the organization in favor of another country. Knowing Latvian anglers’ skills and organizational capacity, International Sport Fishing Federation FIPSed had no doubts to entrust Latvia the organization of the championship. I would also like to wish everyone a great fight, tight lines and let the best win!

NORMUNDS GRABOVSKIS, Latvian Sports Fishing Federation Member of the Board, Latvian national team head coach: With Small Baltezers everything is in fine, fish are there. Competition sectors are chosen so that thre would be fair and equal conditions for everyone, with no hidden no surprises. This lake is very appropriate because there are so-called sport fish that is perhaps not so interesting for daily fishing, but just for angling for sport and thats why it is easy to organize competition of such volume.

As regards Latvian national team I won’t give any forecasts, I can say only that there are five to six equal level teams that will compete for medals, forecasts can be expressed only about winning team score. In any case, without naming any, everyone who is in sport will understand that there are teams coming to learn and then there is the core of the teams, which are always fighting for medals. Latvia is among the teams that will be fighting.

SEAN WARNER, Team USA I don’t have much to say, but of course we are glad to be here  and I really appreciate first and foremost Latvian Sport Fishing federation job done. Six month ago we were not pretty much sure there will be Ice fishing championship this year. I appreciate work done by federation and also the main sponsor of this championship Norfin and Salmo Group. We had an opportunity to come here a couple of times and I can say both organizing committee and sponsors have done fantastic job. I can say this is great lake and great venue. We were here few weeks ago doing some training and we are here since Satturday and I think this might be one of the best championships ever. We have great bunch of competitives, it is nice to see that some of the teams that hadn’t been able to come last year are here and this is what truly makes international competition possible. I’m really glad we all are here all are competeing for sports here. I think this is a great championship, we have great lake, great venue, great hotel we are staying at, I think this will be most competitive, most enjoyable of all ice fishing championships I’ve ever been part of. Thank you to organizers and sponsors.

EGILS DRAUDINS, main coach – We have an honor to organize WIFC for the third time in Latvia. We have a new team and from previous composition we have taken all the best experience, what our men have gained in previous championships. I want to thank the Almighty for it that he has given us the ice, so we have a base on which to catch and compete. I might repeat that the ice is safe enough in areas where competitions are planned for two days. Regarding judges they are also selected from both sport anglers and the volunteers who are just anglers. So I hope that we will be able to ensure proper trial procedure all through competition.

With the Opening Ceremony of 14th World Ice Fishing Championship, held in accordance with the best traditions all starts for real! Tomorrow one more and last training day, and then witin Satturday and Sunday we will find out who is the best who will be new champions!

 

 

The first training day

After a long and continuous rain, Ferbruary finally turned into winter with reasonable cold and snow, ensuring white and sunny background, exactly on time for team photo shooting session. All 14 teams were attending first training, all of them determined to discover Mazais Baltezers secrets and get along with local fish. All participants come to training in a great mood and were happy to meet each other – old friends anglers. Training itself was smooth and stress-free, everyone did their planned job. Despite weather changes there were many catches and even biger fish than before. After four hours participants returned to the starting point, had some lunch and get into bus to travel to Salmo retail shop, were some pleasant surprises were waiting.

Pirmā treniņu diena noslēgusies. Pēc ilgstošiem un nepārtrauktiem lietiem, beidzot  iestājās februārim atbilstošāks laiks ar nelielu salu un sniegu. Vismaz daba parūpējās, lai čempionātā komandu foto sesija noritētu uz balta un saulaina fona. Uz treniņu ieradušās visas 14 komandas, visi dalībnieki bija apņēmības pilni atklāt Mazā Baltezera noslēpumus un mēģināt saprasties ar vietējām zivīm. Visi dalībnieki ieradusies uz treniņu labā omā, neslēpj prieku par atkal redzēšanos ar cīņu biedriem – seniem draugiem makšķerniekiem.  Diena pagāja mierīgi, komandas darīja savus ieplānotos darbus. Neskatoties uz laika maiņu  zivis ķērās labāk nekā Latvijas izlases atlases sacensībās, pats galvenais, ķērās arī nedaudz lielāka izmēra zivis. Dažs pat tika pie pannas izmēra. Pēc četrām treniņu stundām dalībnieki atgriezās uz starta vietu joprojām labā omā. Pēc smaga treniņu darba dalībnieki ezera krastā nedaudz ieturējās un sēdās autobusos,  lai dotos apmeklēt Salmo veikalu, kur sportistiem bija sagatavoti daži patīkami pārsteigumi.

 

 

14th WIFC 2017 is almost there!

14th WIFC 2017 is almost there! All preparatory and organizational works are almost done and we are ready to welcome our guests!
Today we inspected venue of the competition, Mazais Baltezers. Ice is safe and about 30-35cm thick. Competition zones are marked and monitored that no one is fishing there…. So just wait – skilful anglers from all over the world are comming to compete very soon!

Četrpadsmitais Pasaules Čempionāts Zemledus makšķerēšanā ir tepat ar roku sasniedzams. Visi sagatavošanās darbi gandrīz pabeigti un esam gatavi uzņemt viesus. Šodien apsekojot Mazo Baltezeru, pārliecinājāmies, ka ledus ir drošs un apm. 30-35cm biezs. Sacensību zonas ir nospraustas un tiek uzraudzītas, jo pirms sacensībām makšķerēt tajās ir aizliegts.
Gaidām – pavisam drīz te sacentīsies prasmīgi copmaņi no visas pasaules!