Matt Hodgson, from Heathfield, is about to set off on a trip to the world championships in Romania.
A sled dog racer from East Sussex is about to set off on a trip to the world championships in Romania.
Matt Hodgson, from Heathfield, is a six-time world champion, with four titles on dry land and two on the snow, beating opposition from countries with colder climates.
His dogs Lux, Nimis and Pride train on a wheeled sled, and Hodgson said "putting the miles in" was the key to winning.
"We train hard in this country to get the dogs as fit as possible. It's not really me, it's the dogs – they're the athletes. I just try not to mess it up."
Hodgson started with dry land sled dog racing, on a specialist aluminium sled with wheels, a sport he said had been popular for decades in the UK.
"Dry land is a bit of a misnomer, it's normally a lot of mud," he added.
He switched to snow in 2017 and became Great Britain's first world champion in Italy in 2023, retaining his title the following year in Austria.
"When I started, I'd never even skied. At first, I was terrible, I couldn't get used to the feeling of my feet sliding away and not being able to steer," Hodgson said.
They are now preparing to race for the first time in the class for up to six dogs at the World Sled Dog Association's World Championships in Romania in February.
Hodgson will race with five dogs, borrowing two. They will race three 12km events across three days.
He will drive his specially adapted van more than 1,500 miles to Transylvania, stopping in the Alps to train on the way.
They have faced temperatures of -30C driving to races in the past, Hodgson said.
"The water freezes, the van doors freeze so you have to be careful not to get locked out," he added.
"The dogs are fine, they're from Greenland. It's me who has to learn to cope."
He added: "You can never get a dog to do something it doesn't want to do, but they are a dog that has thousands of years of adaptation in the arctic.
"You're working with a dog that wants to do it but it's about making it fun and getting them to do it your way."
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Category: General Sports
