- BERLIN (AFP) -- A wild-eyed
Russian fires a revolver above his head. And they're off. Ivan storms into
the lead with Dukat and Olga III in hot pursuit, knocking into the walls
of the little plastic corridors they are enclosed in, each beast straining
for that winning edge.
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- Welcome to the wild world of cockroach racing.
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- A loft apartment in Berlin is playing host to an eccentric
crowd keen to witness a new entertainment craze sweeping, or perhaps scuttling
across, Europe.
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- A well-known actress watches, enthralled, a mysterious
beauty tucks her betting slip under a strap of her silk bustier, while
a crowd of sunglass-wearing artists roars "Long live the revolution"
and then "Music maestro!".
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- But the accordion player is not listening. Having given
a rendition of a mournful ballad called "The Bachelor Cockroach",
she has put down her instrument so she can watch the big race.
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- "Ladies and gentlemen, our creatures should not
be confused with the little cockroaches that haunt your kitchens,"
says the master of ceremonies.
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- "These animals come from a long and illustrious
lineage and follow a special diet. They have been reared with love!"
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- The race is being staged by Nikolai Makarov, a successful
Russian-born painter who moved to the former East Berlin in 1975 but retains
a wild beard which could find him well at home in a Tolstoy novel.
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- Earlier he had carefully transported the 'thoroughbred'
cockroaches from his painting studio next door, where 120 of the beauties
roam.
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- "They are a special breed - the Certamen currentium
blattarum," he says. "Their Ukrainian trainer comes over once
a week to put them through their paces. He also teaches them how to deal
with the cameras."
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- He is not kidding. In the rest of the world they may
be stamped under foot, but these little beasts are stars and each one is
described in loving detail in the race programme, accompanied by a photograph.
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- Ivan is "an utterly aggressive, ruthless contestant
who will once again show no mercy in his quest for victory".
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- Olga III meanwhile is "in excellent condition -
who has not heard of the 26 victories of one of the most successful lady
athletes in the world?"
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- But the smart money is on the frisky Dukat. "Has
speed and stamina, but lacks experience," the programme said.
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- On the wall behind the glass tank which houses the competitors,
hang the bodies of their illustrious predecessors.
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- "Tamara, 5/11/99 to 20/02/02. Discovered in a Moscow
underground station. Had a very short career," reads one, though surely
the most tragic is another Tamara, who was quite literally a victim of
her own success.
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- "Squashed by the gold medal won at the Salt Lake
Olympics," said the inscription above a small black carapace set into
the metal disc.
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- In the race itself, the competitors are, well, neck and
neck.
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- Ivan, a giant at seven centimetres (two inches) long,
is holding off the challenge of Pionier ("a top fit tactician, but
prone to false starts") and Pamir ("an ice cold sportsman").
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- "These cockroach races are a little bit of Russian
history that I brought with me when I left," Makarov explains. "These
kind of races were really popular among the czars."
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- They were even immortalised in a book, "The Escape",
written in 1928 by Mikhail Bulgakov.
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- Makarov sees in the cockroaches something of the despair
of emigrants like him, and he just wants people to look on both of them
-- the emigrants and the cockroaches -- with a little more love.
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- There are raucous cheers from the finishing line at the
end of the two-metre track. Pamir has won and Andy Hasse, an American who
has come all the way from London just for this race, collects his winnings.
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- What made him bet 50 euros (61 dollars) on a cockroach?
"It was the vodka," he says. "And the girl over there."
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- Copyright © 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of Agence France Presse.
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