This coming Sunday, Finland’s first Visma Ski Classics Challengers event on roller-skis will take place in Imatra as Lake Saimaa Roller-ski Marathon kicks off in predicted rainy conditions. The original plan was to have a two-day race with the women’s start on Saturday and the men’s one on Sunday. Now, both races are going to be held at 10 am local time on Sunday.

Lake Saimaa Roller Ski Marathon is a classic roller-ski competition between the two Spa Hotels by the Lake Saimaa. The track also utilizes the Imatra Roller-ski track at Ukonniemi Stadium. The race course is 10 km long, and there will be six laps starting and finishing at the Ukonniemi Stadium. When racing, one can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the largest lake in Finland. Imatra offers one of the best roller-ski conditions in Finland with a modern shooting area, and Imatran Urheilijat, the local ski club, has a long experience in organizing competitions in cross-country skiing and biathlon.

There are some well-known Finnish long distance skiers in the start list such as Olli Tyrväinen, Miika Ruokonen, Eric Storvall, who is also the team director of Team Edux, Heli Heiskanen, Slavia Pojistovna Sport Team, Noora Kivikko, Team Edux, Kati Roivas, Team Decathlon Experience and Terhi Pollari, Team Nordic Jobs Worldwide. These Finns will face a hard competition from the visiting Russian Winter Team as its athletes Maxim Vylegzhanin, Aleksandr Grebenko, Aleksei Shemiakin and Olga Tsareva want take home the victory trophies.

You can find more information about the race at https://www.vismaskiclassics.com/the-tour/challenger_events/lake-saimaa-roller-ski-marathon-men/