Ready, Set...Scuttle

Berlin is hardly a city lacking in diverse entertainment but a new and unusual pastime is beginning to capture the imagination of a cross section of society in the German capital, drawing in everyone from artists and actors to ordinary Joe's from the street.

Passing up the opportunity to strut their stuff at the city's hot-spots and declining invitations for dinner parties, eccentric Berliners are instead flocking to loft apartments to experience cockroach racing.

Usually a leisure activity more suited to sleazy, sweaty bars in Mexico and South America, cockroach racing has recently taken off in Berlin as the craze scuttles its way across Europe.

Most evenings a whole host of characters can be found cheering on their favorites, such thoroughbreds with names like Ivan, Dukat and Olga III, while waving their betting slips furiously.

Enthusiastic and eccentric crowd

The cockroaches are placed in two-meter long plastic corridors down which they run, knocking into the walls as they charge for the finish line. The crowd goes wild and some wave their race programs as they will their chosen roach to victory.

The pioneer of Berlin's burgeoning roach racing scene is Nikolai Makarov, a Russian-born painter who moved to the former East Berlin in 1975. In an interview with news agency AFP, Makarov explained his reasons for staging the races.

"These cockroach races are a little bit of Russian history that I brought with me when I left," he said. "These kinds of races were really popular among the czars."

Makarov and the many fans, some of whom have flown in from other countries for the event, take the racing very seriously.

Form guide helps the punters

Each roach is described in the program to give the punters an idea on their strengths and weaknesses ahead of the frenzied betting before the starting pistol goes off.

Ivan is "an utterly aggressive, ruthless contestant who will once again show no mercy in his quest for victory," while Olga III is described as being "in excellent condition -- who has not heard of the 26 victories of one of the most successful lady athletes in the world?"

And these are not your average cockroaches like those found behind the cooker or in the bathroom at a sub-standard holiday resort.

"They are a special breed -- the Certamen currentium blattarum," Makarov said. "Their Ukrainian trainer comes over once a week to put them through their paces. He also teaches them how to deal with the cameras."

He is not kidding. In the rest of the world they may be stamped under foot, but in the world of cockroach racing, these little beasts are stars.