Update: 11-city ice skating race hopes dashed

Hopes that the first 200 km 11-city ice skating race in 15 years will take place this weekend were dashed on Wednesday evening, when the organisers said the ice is still too thin.

With a thaw due to set in on Sunday, the ice in the south of Friesland is still to unreliable to allow some 16,000 people to take part in the event, the organising committee said.

'We have decided this with pain in our hearts,' Wiebe Wieling, chairman of the committee told a news conference. 'It is frustrating. We are so close. But the safety of everyone is just as important as holding the race. But at the moment, we can't do it.'

The race, which takes in the 11 cities of Friesland, was last held in 1997.