More than 5600 skiers already set for Finlandia-hiihto

Already 5600 cross-country skiers have left their entries for Finlandia-hiihto 2010, taking place February 27-28 in Lahti/Hollola. The number of participants is significantly more than in the 2009’s edition, where there were total of 5183 skiers.

This year, there are 3481 skiers registered for 50 km in classic technique on February 27. The free technique event over the same distance is in plans for 1237 skiers. As a detail, there are total of 867 women who are already registered for Finlandia-hiihto 2010.

As usual, many ski friends from different countries will again travel to Lahti to get the Finlandia-hiihto experience. There are total of 742 registered skiers from 26 nations so far. Most of them come from Russia (247), following by Estonia (86), Italy (85), Norway (56), Germany (47) and Sweden (37).

The host nation’s big names for 50 km classic event are last year’s Finlandia-winners Niklas Colliander and Kari Varis. One interesting name competing in 32 kilometre classical race will be Minna Nieminen, who teamed up with Sanna Sten to win silver at Beijing Olympic Games in rowing.