Last Sunday, May 19th 2007, on an island in the Ivankovsky Lake (Tver region) the first selection round of "Expedition-Trophy 2008" was successfully completed. There were 40 applicants and seven merchants, six from which were veterans of one or both the Races 2005/2006. According to the results of the competition and the additional voting, the following teams won: "Vladik", "Mechty sbivayutsya", and "Off-road Samara".

The competitive program of the stage included 13 Challenging Points different in difficulty and necessary skills and aimed at testing the applicants' abilities to work in a team while solving non-typical tasks. The main goal of the Selection rounds is to help the Merchants to choose the best candidates for their teams within 8 hours of the competition. A team should consist of 6 people with at least one woman and only one Veteran of the previous Trophies.

Thus, after the competitive part was completed, five from the seven Merchants present were able to form up their teams:

• Ekaterina Tribunskikh (Samara)
  
• Elizaveta Kuzmina (Moscow)
  
• Alexei Volkov (Moscow)
  
• Pavel Cheremisin (Novosibirsk)
  
• Valeria Bessonova (Viborg)
  

Additional voting was necessary to determine the three wining teams and a as result the majority of voices went to Pavel Cheremisin's team "Vladik", the second place took Elizaveta Kuzmina's team "Mechty sbivayutsya", and, finally, the third place was won by Ekaterina Tribunskikh and "Off-road Samara".

The casts of the teams are:

• Pavel Cheremisin
  
• Eduard Averyjanov
  
• Sergey Timofeev
  
• Julia Kolos
  
• Vitaliy Turkin
  
• Alexandra Shirokova
  
• Kirill Filippov
  

• Elizaveta Kuzmina
  
• Petr Chernashkin
  
• Roman Mamaev
  
• Alexander Parshikov
  
• Mikhail Lomov
  
• Anton Sedikov
  
• Elena Milenbakh
  

• Ekaterina Tribunskikh
  
• Roman Fedorkov
  
• Ivan Sverdlik
  
• Sergey Simankin
  
• Kirill Simankin
  
• Evgeniy Vasiljev
  
• Andrey Voronkov
  

Our congratulations to the teams "Vladik", "Mechty sbivayutsya" and "Off-road Samara". As winners of the Selection rounds they become participants of "Expedition-Trophy 2008" without paying the entrance fee.

"Expedition-Trophy 2008" is the world longest winter race on off-road vehicles: it starts on February, 23rd in Murmansk and finishes in the "Golden horn" bay in Vladivostok two weeks later. Any person irrespective of their nationality can participate in "Expedition-Trophy". The prize fund is 10 kg of gold. Russian and foreign teams participate in the Race on equal terms. A team consists of 6 people in two off-road vehicles. Approximately 40 teams will participate in "Expedition-Trophy 2008".

Coordinator of the Selections and "Expedition-Trophy 2008":

Liliya Valieva
+7 495 970-0040 tel/fax
+7 915 479-9948 cell
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