Sulkava Rogaining 24h Finnish champioships
Island Racing at the Sulkava Finnish Rogaining Championships
Press Release / 11.08.2022
Over the weekend of 30.-31. July athletes from around Europe travelled to the Finnish Rogaining Championships in Sulkava. The race terrain was on the biggest Island in Finland, covering over 170km2 and the event was organized by the Northern Adventure team.
Partalansaari offered some unique terrain for Finnish Championships. Most of the checkpoints were at the top of hills or at attractions. The elevation change on the island is only 100m and the winners travelled 133km with 4300m elevation gain! So that tells youthat the course was designed to go through a lot of hills.
On Friday evening all international teams arrive at Race HQ in Partalansaari. Almost all of the local teams arrived on Saturday. It was super cool to see a lot of international racers in Finland.
There were lot of last minute changes for teams, for example Team Juusa from Estonia Reeda Tuula-Fjodorov & Ain Fjodorov had to withdraw from attending the race. They are putting all their focus into the World Rogaining Championships in one month's time, and then into Adventure Racing World Championships.
Mixed category was really interesting all through the race. The winners were - team MetsäsEksyjät - Olli Pitkänen & Suvi Pitkänen. They got married three weeks ago and they spent their honeymoon racing NUTS300, where Suvi finished 2nd woman and Olli 6th man. (it's a 200 mile trail running race in Finland). The second team was Nopsakoivet, with team members Jouni Nurminen & Riikka Kaipia. Jouni has been racing in Sulkava 60km Rogaining for more than 15 years now. Mr Nurminen has run alone all 7 legs in Jukola Relay 2010 in the legendary Kytäjä Terrain.
In the Women's race it was an international race, winners Amber FOX came from Latvia and second team Ehtal&Riikka came from Estonia. Both teams are planning to travel to Finland again next year for the European Championships.
There was lots of drama in men's race. After 22 hours of racing the race was totally open. Lupus Extreme was leading by only with 4 points from Team Duro. Lupus Extreme made last minute change when Mika Talvisilta couldn't race, so Janne Snellman asked Juha Lehtonen to race with him. Juha is team captain for Mareld AR, they finished 12th in Adventure Racing World Championships 2021.
After 23h 35min Lupus Extreme crossed the finish line as the winners, 4 points ahead of Team Duro. Team Duro ran 139km and Lupus Extreme 133km, which shows how important good tactics & route planning are for Rogaining. Lupus Extreme will race next time in the World Rogaining Championships in Czechia. Race organizers, Northern Adventure team, will also be on the starting line in Czechia.
Next year Finland is hosting the 19th 24hour Rogaining European Championships from 9.-10. September. The trrain will be totally different since the race takes place in Western Finland. https://www.tume.fi/erc2023/
Race Results: https://en.northernadventure.fi/24h-rogaining-sm-2022
GPS-tracking: http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/
