Arctic Circle 24
In The Land of the Midnight Sun
Heikki Hihnala / 10.08.2009
Thankfully, this time the Midnight Sun was not as hot as last year, but the sun was shining all the time.
The race collected together all the best adventure racing and orienteering teams from Finland and Estonia to race for big prize pool presented by ScandinavianOutdoorStore.com.
The race started on Friday with a prologue including Swim & Run &Canoe sections where teams were allowed to break up. After the prologue, teams headed to Sweden by canoe where a roller-skating section was waiting for them. During the canoe and roller-skating sections the team led by Bimbache winner Janne Mononen, Team JSP, made it clear that they were hunting the first prize, which they won last year. After the first paddling and roller-skating section, teams returned to Finland. This time paddling was carried out in Tornionjoki, which is the longest free streaming river in Europe. Teams had to paddle upstream which forced some teams to carry their canoes due to the strong current.
Team Omjakon was strongest team on the river and started the first biking section a couple of minutes before the second team. At the beginning of biking section the favourite teams took charge until it was time for the first quest with abseiling and challenging verbal orienteering tasks. After that, teams in the lead were mixed. This time Finnish National Ski-orienteering team aka Northern Kings took control of the race and held it for several hours.
The race continued with brutal biking legs which made many teams suffer because of long hills and difficult biking trails. During the long bike leg standings did not change a lot. Team Omjakon was chasing the leaders and managed to catch them at the end of this leg. Behind the leaders the winner of ArcticCircle24 2008 was forced to withdraw because of the illness of a team member. Behind the two first teams the fight for the third place was severe.
SleepMonsters
