Nordic Marathon Championships

The Nordic Marathon Championships was an irregularly-held men's competition over the marathon distance between athletes from the Nordic countries. All five Nordic countries took part in the competitions and all five played host to the tournament, with Iceland being the last nation to do so in 1969. Finland was the most successful nation at the championships, with only two of the race winners coming from elsewhere. The only other countries to reach the medal table were Sweden and Norway.

Nordic Marathon Championships
SportRoad running
Founded1949
Ceased1979
CountryNordic countries
Related
competitions		Nordic Athletics Championships

It was inaugurated in 1949 and was held on a biennial basis until 1959. It was incorporated into the Nordic Athletics Championships for the 1961, 1963 and 1965 editions. The event re-emerged as a separate annual competition alongside the Nordic Combined Events Championships between 1967 and 1970. The last three marathons were held in 1975, 1977 and 1979. Women never featured at the competition as developments in women's athletics had not yet reached the point where marathon races were common.

Veikko Karvonen was the most successful athlete, with three straight victories from 1951 to 1955. Three other Finns managed to top the podium twice: Tenho Salakka, Eino Oksanen and Pentti Rummakko. Rummakko would have matched Karvonen's feat had he been officially selected in 1970 – he finished first in 2:29:34 hours competing as a guest that year. No athletes outside of Finland had an athlete reach the podium on multiple occasions. Finland swept the medals in 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1968, and 1969. Reflecting the success of the Flying Finns period, at least two Finnish athletes stood on the podium at fourteen of the sixteen times the championships was held (Swedes took the minor medals in 1961 and Finland took no medals in 1977). Håkan Spik of Finland set the championships record of 2:14:48 upon winning the final edition in 1979.

A Nordic Marathon Match was held in 2015 in Stockholm. Men and women's individual and team competitions were held. Swedes Fredrik Johansson and Isabellah Andersson won the races and led their nation to both team titles.[1]

Editions
Edition Year City Country Date No. of athletes No. of nations
1st1949StockholmSweden
2nd1951TampereFinland
3rd1953OsloNorway
4th1955CopenhagenDenmark
5th1957GothenburgSweden
6th1959PoriFinland
7th1961OsloNorway
8th1963GothenburgSweden
9th1965HelsinkiFinland
10th1967CopenhagenDenmark
11th1968ReykjavíkIceland
12th1969KongsvingerNorway
13th1970SollentunaSweden
14th1975MossNorway
15th1977AarhusDenmark
26th1979ÖsthammarNorway

Medal summary
Veikko Karvonen of Finland has three consecutive wins from 1951 to 1955
Jan Fjærestad of Norway was one of two non-Finns to win the event
Year Gold Silver Bronze
1949  Matti Urpalainen (FIN)2:32:18  Gösta Leandersson (SWE)2:33:55  Paavo Laine (FIN)2:35:01
1951  Veikko Karvonen (FIN)2:28:08  Gustaf Jansson (SWE)2:29:19  Vilho Partanen (FIN)2:34:37
1953  Veikko Karvonen (FIN)2:30:16  Viktor Olsen (NOR)2:33:17  Veikko Timonen (FIN)2:35:11
1955  Veikko Karvonen (FIN)2:21:22  Paavo Kotila (FIN)2:24:19  Eino Pulkkinen (FIN)2:26:30
1957  Paavo Kotila (FIN)2:24:04  Eino Pulkkinen (FIN)2:24:38  Eino Oksanen (FIN)2:27:34
1959  Eino Oksanen (FIN)2:25:35  Olavi Manninen (FIN)2:25:44  Paavo Kotila (FIN)2:26:13
1961  Tenho Salakka (FIN)2:26:14  Evert Nyberg (SWE)2:26:37  Arnold Vaide (SWE)2:26:40
1963  Eino Oksanen (FIN)2:22:01  Paavo Pystynen (FIN)2:22:07  Eino Valle (FIN)2:23:40
1965  Tenho Salakka (FIN)2:24:51  Per Gunnar Lien (NOR)2:24:51  Paavo Pystynen (FIN)2:26:56
1967  Kalevi Ihaksi (FIN)2:26:03  Erik Östbye (SWE)2:27:34  Tenho Salakka (FIN)2:27:58
1968  Pentti Rummakko (FIN)2:17:48  Raimo Tikka (FIN)2:18:50  Paavo Pystynen (FIN)2:19:19
1969  Pentti Rummakko (FIN)2:21:49  Kalle Hakkarainen (FIN)2:23:27  Ensio Tanninen (FIN)2:23:32
1970  Ulf Håkansson (SWE)2:29:42  Kalle Hakkarainen (FIN)2:29:53  Tenho Salakka (FIN)2:30:18
1975  Reino Paukkonen (FIN)2:21:52  Ove Malmqvist (SWE)2:22:44  Ari-Pekka Gylling (FIN)2:23:34
1977  Jan Fjærestad (NOR)2:20:36  Lars Enqvist (SWE)2:20:36  Henry Olsen (NOR)2:21:04
1979  Håkan Spik (FIN)2:14:48  Matti Karjalainen (FIN)2:15:29  Kjell-Erik Ståhl (SWE)2:16:49

Medal table
Gösta Leandersson was one of nine Swedish medallists in the event's history
RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Finland (FIN)1481335
2 Sweden (SWE)1629
3 Norway (NOR)1214
Totals (3 entries)16161648

See also

References
  1. Nordic Competitions 2015. Nordic Athletics. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
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