Estonian skier wins Vasaloppet marathon

Mar 09, 2000

The president thanked Olle that the Estonians were successfully reclaiming Estonia's place on the map of world skiing, a presidential spokesman said.

Olle clocked 4:14:38 on March 5 to win the 90-kilometer Vasaloppet - the world's longest ski race – well ahead of Swedes Oskar Svaerd and Staffan Larsson, who finished with 4:19:17 and 4:19:18, respectively.

Olle became only the second non-Swede to win the 76-year-old event over the past 15 years. Russian-born Austrian Mickail Botvinov, who won in 1997, was the last non-Swedish winner.

This year's marathon was the fifth Vasaloppet for the Estonian skier, who had finished sixth two years ago.

Around 16,500 skiers competed in the event this year.

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