Sulkava Rogaining 24h Finnish champioships

Athletes from around Europe Prepare for the Finnish Rogaining Championships

Lauri Hollo / 27.07.2022

Next weekend, 30. - 31. July, in Sulkava City in Eastern Finland, the Northern Adventure team will organize the Finnish Rogaining Championship. The race will gather more than 250 racers from five different countries. Racers are travelling from Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, and Finland.

Northern Adventure Team is an Adventure racing team from Finland. The team is one of the youngest ever to race on the ARWS-circuit; they finished 24th place in Adventure Race Croatia this May, and they will race in the Raid Gallaecia Adventure Racing European Championships in October 2022. The team also has a strong background in Rogaining; the Sulkava Finnish Rogaining Championship course setters Jerry Aunula & Lauri Hollo finished 7th in World Rogaining Championship in 2019.

There will be an interesting mix of racers competing. The Estonians have always been good in Rogaining and navigation challenges. Team Juusa from Estonia has Estonia Ace Adventure Team racer Reeda Tuula-Flodora and her husband Ain Fjodoro.  Ain recently won Expedition Estonia with his team. Other strong international racers are Team Tandem-41 Anton & Vera Khlebnikova. They are also racing in mixed categories. We will see if the Finns beat international racers on their home ground. 

The rogaining championship gathers all the best ultra racers in Finland, and this year’s Finnish Rogaining Championships is the most competitive race of all time. At least five strong teams are aiming to win. Finnish Ultrarunner legend, who is also the only Finn to ever participate in the Barkley Marathons, Mikael Heerman, is racing with his wife Sari Heerman. 

Another interesting pair is Team Raihnaiset ukot, Juha Jumisko & Hannes Pasanen. Juha set the 24h vertical world record in 2020, in which Hannes also did +15 000 vertical meters. Both have done a lot of 100 milers and 200 milers, but this is their first 24h rogain. We have to see how they tackle navigation challenges made by the course setters. 

Another strong team is Team Duro. They have a long background in Adventure Racing, and they have been racing together since early 2000. Team member Tuomas Maisala won just three weeks ago at the only 200 mile ultra running race in Finland.

A Unique Partnership with the Finnish Music scene 

The most popular band in Finland, Apulanta, is one of the partners of the rogaining competition organized in Sulkava. The band’s unique project for the independent value of trees and forests donates no less than 2,500 birch seeds to competitors and volunteers. With the project “I grow a tree, We grow a forest”, the Apulanta band hopes that the contestants will plant seeds where they hope trees will grow in the future.

Next year Finland is hosting the 19th 24h Rogaining European Championships from 9.-10. September. The terrain will be quite different since the race takes place in Western Finland. https://www.tume.fi/erc2023/

This year’s Finnish championship is, however, a good way for competitors to familiarize themselves with the Finnish map style.

You can follow the race on Facebook https://fb.me/e/1TKsoY2mc or follow GPS tracks on http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/

Also follow on instagram at

https://www.instagram.com/northernadventureteam/

https://www.instagram.com/sulkavaoutdoors/