440 Teams Take Part in Võhandu Canoe Marathon
On April 21, around 440 teams participated in the Võhandu Marathon, a 100-kilometer canoe race held each year on Estonia's longest river.
As usual, Lithuanian competitors dominated the event, taking the three top spots, ETV reported.
The winning team, consisting of Vidas Kupcinskas and Sigitas Bulovas, crossed the finish line with a time 06:49:24.5.
“We have been training a lot since early spring. We started rowing as soon as the ice melted,” one of the winners said.
Estonians only managed to achieve fourth place, with a two-man team from Tartu University finishing with a time of 07:04:29.0, almost 15 minutes behind the leaders.
"Our strategy slightly failed us," said team member Raigo Põder. "On two occasions we fell behind because we did not want to row through bushes and took a longer route. That's where we lost time," he said.
The Võhandu Marathon typically attracts participants that are not so much interested in competing as they are in enjoying the river's scenery.
Ingrid Teesalu