29th Finland ice marathon

Finland ice marathon took place today in Kuopio for the 29th time. Due to temperature staying above zero for about one week before the competition it looked like the ice might be in bad condition during the event. Luckily few days ago it got below zero and it's stayed that way since. Actually because the ice has melted a bit and frozen again several times it's smooother than usually.

The weather wasn't best possible today though. In the morning it was below freezing but it got above zero. It snowed, sleeted and even rained a bit. I stayed at the event for only about half an hour, as we went for a visit to my wife's parents. And I've already been watching the event twice before. I shot around 40 frames, mostly panning shots (like this one) of the skaters passing by.

One alternative pic of the event.

Finnish men won a bronze medal in olympic ice hockey by beating USA 5-0. Of course, losing against Swedes yesterday was painful, but gaining a medal in a tournament in which the best players are partcipating (unlike in ice hockey worldchampionship tournaments) was a great result for the Finnish team. We don't even usually have as wide range of top players in our team as USA, Canada, Russia or Sweden. And before the tournament (and in the beginning of it) three of our best center forwards got injured and couldn't participate.