Page 43 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW SPECIAL ISSUE 7 B

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 3

Finland

Another rather active country in the north of Europe is Finland. There are 20 sighthound
clubs that organize races and coursing, not always alone but together with another club.
Some of them also organize pack-coursings. Finland organized in the (recent) past some
major events like European and World championships.

July 7, Helsinki, 2002. A historical landmark for the breed in Finland: Jaraa Shi'Rayân
becomes the first Sloughi ever to race in an official track race at the "Tuomarinkartano"
(track in Helsinki).
The competition was the Helsinki district championships.

The length of the track was 480 m and Jaraa's time was 33.52 sec.
The time needed for the Racing Champion title is 34 seconds.
Unfortunately Jaraa's result did not qualify towards the championship, because she was
racing alone. However, she did become the first Sloughi Helsinki district champion.
Jaraa’s track record was undefeated for 15 years until Qalb Elassad Ayda took over in 2017
with a time of 32.95 sec. - this record still holds today (2025).

In this moment, 2025, there are 6 racing tracks. In the past 5 tracks have been closed.
Helsinki, Tuomarinkartano - grass
Hyvinkää, Sveitsi - sand
Tampere, Kauppi – sand (1969-2025)
Turku, Vätti – sand
Liperi - sand

Oulu, Virpiniemi – sand

The statistics are from 2014. There were 2354 racing licences in total. 848 dogs are in age
of racing, which means between 15 months and 8 years. From 2014: 41 Sloughis have had a
valid racing licence.

In this moment (2025) 8 Sloughis have valid racing licences and these dogs are in age of

racing. The dogs can run 280, 350 or 480 meters at an event of which the 280 is the least
popular. From 2014 – 2019 there were 10 Sloughis competing (on average) per year. After
2020 (Covid) that number dropped to 4.