STATISTICS: events of Tartu Maraton brought together almost 6 000 skiers
Winter in Estonia was long and snowy. Over a long period of time, all the events of Tartu Maraton were able to take place again as planned. In addition, it was possible to take part in virtual events for three months.
48. Tartu Maraton. Author: Adam Illingworth.
Events that took place
Tartu Maraton pre-events started a week before the main day with the 8th Tartu Relay Marathon and Open Track races.
A total of 280 people took part in the Open Track races. 116 covered 63 km, 122 chose 31 km and 42 people went for 16 km. Relay Marathon brought together 73 teams, which means 292 skiers. The total number of participants in the pre-events is therefore 572.
Next up were the children's races: 450 small skiers came to Tähtvere Sports Park.
Tartu Maraton was held on February 20th. There were 2521 people on the 63 km distance and 830 finished the 31 km ski race. For a total of two distances, it makes 3 801 skiers.
In addition to the participants and the people cheering on the track, big ski party was also popular among TV viewers. In five and a half hours, an average of 48 000 people watched Tartu Maraton live on ETV 2 channel. The quarter-hour with the most viewers brought more than 80 000 people behind TV screens.
Virtual races
The virtual race of Tartu Maraton lasted for three months – from December 20 to March 20. People were able to choose between 63 km, 31 km, 16 km or 63 km combo and 2x63 km combo.
There were 50 participants in 63 km virtual race, 89 skiers decided in favor of 31 km and 169 did 16 km. Of the combo distances: 63 km kombo was the most popular with 84 participants, 2x63 kombo distance was chosed by 14 people.
For the second year in a row, children's virtual races were popular among kindergarten groups all over Estonia. A total of 1199 little skiers took part in the virtual Tartu Maraton children's race.
If we add up the numbers of Tartu Maraton pre-events, children's races and the main day and add the numbers of the virtual events, we get a total of 5 978 participants.
According to preliminary data, Tartu Maraton in 2022 will be the sixth largest ski marathon in the world in terms of main distances. If we take into account all the program events of Tartu Maraton, we will be in fifth place.
The 48th Tartu Maraton also opened the Klassik season. The next events in the series are the Tartu Forest Maraton on May 8th and Tartu Rattaralli on May 29th. More information about the events of the Klassik series can be found HERE.