Finlandia-Hiihto

All set to start a new Finlandia Hiihto! The Finnish Worldloppet marathon located in the city of the World Championships 2017 – Lahti – started its program this week with a children race and will host Finland’s biggest skimarathon tomorrow (27th of February) 10:00 am CET. More than 3200 skiers are already registered and the OC awaits more with the late registrations today and on race day. Among the entries are also some very well known elite skiers to find: Riitta-Liisa Roponen, the FIS Worldloppet Cup overall winner from 2013/14 will do a jackpot at Finlandia Ski Marathon as she will be racing already on Finlandia-Sprint on Friday, following classic race on Saturday and free on Sunday. Ville Nousiainen won two bronze-medals at the WCS in Liberec 2009. This season he has been struggling with his back, but will be racing on Saturday. Kari Varis is a living Finlandia legend, who has already been participating 15 times and will receive “Hiihtoneuvos” title on Friday evening as well. 

“On Friday, we will enjoy the event and take it easy but all in, having fun. I have been racing well in sprint at the World Cup here in Lahti, so I hope the good memories will continue. I have raced Finlandia as young girl. I have been looking forward to this weekend, it is so great to come and race in Lahti. I have heard nothing but positive things about the event, so it is nice to be able to participate. My plan is to enjoy atmosphere and my good shape, I will race relaxed classic race on Saturday”, Roponen tells about her plans for the first two days.

The race course got shortened to guarantee perfect conditions, so the longest distance will be 42 km on both days, the shorter courses (for the Worldloppet silver status) remaining the same (32 km classic on Saturday, 20km skating on Sunday). The parts which will be left out from 50km are located on the fields between Hälvälä and Orinkarkaus.

“We are proud and happy to announce that Finlandia Ski Marathon will be arranged also this year over 42 km. We will prepare the course as well as we possibly can”, Finlandia Ski Marathon’s president Juha Viljamaa.

This year for the first time a sprint event will hit the skistadium of Lahti. The Finlandia-Sprint is a team competition and will run over 1.5 km on the official sprint tracks of the World Championships 2017. 

The entire race on Saturday will be broadcasted tomorrow from 9:30am CET on www.ess.fi.