Estonian skier wins Vasaloppet marathon

  • 2000-03-09
TALLINN (BNS) - President Lennart Meri on March 5 made a phone call to Estonian skier Raul Olle to congratulate him on winning the prestigious Vasaloppet ski marathon in Sweden.

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.