On February 11, Minsk / Tatyana Lobas - BELTA /. The national winter sports games for forestry workers started today in Vitebsk. Teams from all state production forestry associations and a combined team of organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Forestry are taking part in the competitions, as reported to BELTA correspondent by the Ministry of Forestry. More than a hundred foresters from across the republic have started. Today, an individual race is taking place. Men are participating in a 5 km ski race, women aged 18 to 39 are participating in a 3 km race, and women over 40 are participating in a 2 km race. In the evening, the organizers will offer the participants an interesting cultural program. A sightseeing tour of Vitebsk will be held, which will include visits to the Summer Amphitheatre, the Marc Chagall Museum and Art Center, the Memorial of the 1812 Patriotic War, and the Victory Square complex. On Saturday, February 12, men's and women's relay races will be held. Men will compete over a distance of 3 km, and women over 2 km. On the same day, the award ceremony for the winners of the sports games will take place. The national competitions will serve as a general training session before the performance of Belarusian foresters-skiers at the 43rd European Forestry Ski Races, which will be held from March 7 to 11, 2011, in Sweden. Only permanent employees of forestry organizations are admitted to the current competitions. These conditions will give the competitions greater dynamism, and all teams will compete on equal terms, emphasized in a conversation with BELTA correspondent the chairman of the organizing committee for the preparation of the national competitions, Deputy Minister of Forestry, Alesandr Korbut. He did not rule out the possibility that volunteers from among the spectators might also participate in the ski competitions, but in this case, the scores would be awarded on a separate scale. According to Alesandr Korbut, ski races help to activate mass sports work in the industry's work collectives, promote active recreation for forestry workers and their families, draw the attention of forestry managers to the issues of physical culture and sports development, and for foresters, this is another opportunity to demonstrate their sporting qualities, communicate with colleagues, exchange experience, and finally, simply relax and take care of their health. -0-

BELTA