Media Reviews Lake Baikal International Marathon-2005 

MARATHON WITH UDO MUELLER'S PARTICIPATION STARTED ON LAKE BAIKAL'S ICE

IRKUTSK, March 5 (RIA Novosti, Alexander Batalin)
An international ice marathon with the participation of famous German runner Udo Mueller is to start on Lake Baikal on Saturday.
At noon more than 30 athletes are starting from Tankhoi settlement. They have to cover the classical distance of 41 km 195 m and to finish at Listvyanka settlement, RIA Novosti was told in the organizing committee of the competition.
By sports specialists' forecasts, it will take the runners about 5 hours to cover the distance at an average speed of 8-9 km an hour. They will run on the snow-covered ice. Sections of open, slippery ice can become the sole obstacle.
The marathon runners will have a chance to refresh themselves with hot drinks and fruit during the race. Those who will bow out of the competition will be taken to the finish in microbuses.
The ice marathon is being held on Lake Baikal for the first time within the 3rd Zimniada-2005 international festival of winter games. Zimniada medals and cups will be presented to the winners. Special prizes, specifically For Determination, have also been established.
The most famous entrant of the Lake Baikal race, 44-year-old Udo Mueller from Hanover, has been going in for marathon running from the age of 25. He participated in 140 marathon races in 30 countries of the world. The athlete clocked his best time, 2 hours 30 minutes, in 1985. The Baikal ice marathon is not the first in Mr. Meller's list. He participated in an analogous competition on the ice of the Yukon river in Canada.

GERMAN MARATHONER UDO MELLER LOSES ICE CHAMPIOSHIP TO IRKUTSK SCIENTISTS

IRKUTSK, March 5 (RIA Novosti's Alexander Batalin) - Famous German runner Udo Meller lost his way and was beaten by Irkutsk scientists in the marathon race on the ice of Lake Baikal on Saturday.
RIA Novosti learnt at the press center of the competition that Meller covered the classic marathon distance - 42.195 kilometers - in 3 hours 44 seconds and 25 seconds, emerging the sixth at the finish.
He said that half of the distance he was running well but then lost his way and was running the last 5 kilometers on snow.
"This marathon is something special", Meller said. "There are a few places in the world where you can run marathon on ice. On Lake Baikal it was harder than on Yukon in Canada", said Meller, 44, who participated in 140 long-distance runs in 30 countries.
The first place in the Baikal marathon belongs to Arkadi Kalikhman, 57, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, from Irkutsk. Over 30 years as a marathoner he took part in 100 events. His today's record is 3 hours 8 minutes and 43 seconds.
It is interesting that the second and third place also belong to Irkutsk marathoner scientists.
The Baikal ice marathon was held within the framework of the 3rd international winter games festival Zimniada-2005. The vast program of this festival, which opened on February 23, included, alongside traditional sports, dog-team race and ice fishing, and a number of extreme and ethnographic expeditions.

March 05,2005
15 sportsmen from Irkutsk, Angarsk and Germany took part in the 1-st International Ice marathon ( 42 km 195 m long). The distance was laid from Polovinka settlement on the RoundBaikal Railway to Lisvyanka settlement.
Total nu,mber of sportsmen who applied for participation in the Baikal Ice Marathon was twice more. However, some participants were unable to come due to the fact that March, 05, at their jobs was made a working day.
The main referee of the competition – Irina Krukova – informed that nearly all the marathon participants had good experience in marathon running. In particular, 44-year old runner from Germany – Udo Moeller took part already in 140 marathon competitions held in 30 countries, and other German participant – 33-year old Andreas Kiefer took part in 10 marathons.

The sportsmen started out from Polovinka on RoundBaikal Railway at 12:12 p.m. Originllyit was planned to run from Tanhoy station on the eastern shore to Listvyanka on the western shore crossing the lake. However, based on the data of Emergency & Rescue team the weather in the middle of lake Baikal on the ice traverse of the marathon will change before the middle of the day and strong north-western wind will be blowing along the middle stretch of the lake ( over 30 meters per second), it was decided this time to change the route of the marathon. Also the running track from Tanhoy to Listvyanka turned out to be not ready enough for the marathon, was very hard.

The first to finish was Arkady Kalikhman. His time was 3 hours 8 minutes 43 seconds. Professor Arkady Kalikhman of Irkutsk state linguistic university is 55 years old, he holds doctoral degree in physics and mathimatics, over 30 years he takes part ion various marathons, participated in about 100 of marathon running competitions, including extreme ones for distance over 90 km. Annually, he participates in 3 -5 marathons.

The 2-nd to come to the finish line was Anatoly Derevnin, 52-year old teacher from Russian Law Academy. His time was 3 hrs 18 minutes 53 seconds. He has been involved into the marathon running for 20 years , took part in about 100 running events and marathon competitions. This year this marathon was his 6-th . In order to be the 1-st , perhaps, for the next marathon he is planning to losse weight ( now he is 13 km heavier that Arkady Kalikhman).

The 3-rd to reach the finish line was Alexander Titov ( 43) with time of 3 hrs 24 min. 14 seconds. Alexander holds a degree in technical sciences, he is a research worket of Irkutsk Geography Institute. He has been running since 1968, as for the marathon – first time he took part in the mararthon in 1983. He took part in 10 marathons held at Baikal-Amur Railway, 10 Golden Rings marathons, used to run to Elbrus, in Tian Shan mountains, twice he took part in 15-day tour- de –france competitions.

German marathon runner Udo Moeller showed the time of 3 hrs 44 min. 25 seconds. He was 6-th on the finish. He said that during the first 20 km of Baikal marathon he had a good tempo, but later he slightly missed the original running track and ran around 5 km on nearly bare snow, which was really hard. @I would not say that the Baikal Marathon was an easy walk for me. It was a hard work, -said Udo. – This was a special marathon. There’re few places in the world where one can run the marathon on ice. It was more difficult for me this time than last year on Yukon in Canada. Here you run and can’t figure out exactly how long still you have to run. I could already see the ships in Listvyanka, and they seemded to be very close, however I could not manage to see the end….”

Andreas Kiefer was 9-th at the finish line. It seemed that his muscles or joints ached or were injured before and this factor made more complicated his running in the Marathon. However, he refused to cancel the participations and managed to be the 9-th.

The oldest participant in the Baikal International Ice marathon was 63-year old Vladimir Safronov who came 4-th.

Three women took part in the ice marathon – Irina Nikonova from Angarsk, Olga Kirova and Svetlana Pinigina from Irkutsk, The last 2 women were unable to finish and went off the track. But 61-year old Irina Nikonova managed to finish and was 11-th at the finish. As the only female sportsmen who finished the distance she is regarded to be the 1-st and was awarded with a medal.

The first 3 male marathon runners were awarded with medals and certificates. All 1-st ten runners were awarded with certificates of achievements on lake Baikal. The 2 German sportsmen , the only foreign participants, were also awarded with special medals to memorize their participation and support they rendered to the 1-st Baikal Ice Marathon…..

According to Udo Moeller Baikal Marathon can attract many foreign participants. Perhaps, Udo, as a well-known journalist writing for special marathon and running editions/magazines, in particular, for German magazine “Spiridon” will publish an article about this marathon…

Media Reviews Lake Baikal International Marathon-2006

IRKUTSK SCIENTIST BEATS THE FAMOUS GERMAN MARATHONERS AGAIN

On March 5, 2006 The 2nd Baikal International Ice Marathon “Baikal Clear Waters Conservation” was held. This was one of the events of the Winter games festival “Winteriada 2006”. 27 sportsmen from Germany, Switzerland, Byelorussia and Russia took part in the run. They covered the classic marathon distance of 42.195 km crossing the lake Baikal from Tankhoy to Listvyanka. The organizer of the marathon is Baikal Discovery company with support of Irkutsk regional sport committee and Winteriada headquarters.
The ice distance was laid above the deepest place of the South Baikal. The sportsmen had a joke they ran 1400 meters above the land. The cracks that had appeared in the ice due to the recent earthquake, along with deep snow added to the race some extreme. The route went through the ice base “Baikal Meridian 105” built for the Winteriada games.
The best time on the distance belonged to 59 year old scientist Arkady Kalihman from Irkutsk. It took him 3 hours and 43 minutes to cover the marathon distance. Arkady Kalihman was also the winner of the last year marathon. He is professor, Doctor of physics and mathematics, now the chairman of the Economics, Management and Region Department of Irkutsk State Linguistic University. He is involved in marathons running for over 30 years, he took part in 100 marathons so far.
The second was 27 year old Elena Tabanakova also from Irkutsk. Her time was 3 hours 54 minutes. Elena has been doing runs for only 4 years, she participated in a marathon run only once before, in Omsk. That was her first ice marathon.
Michael Shtein, 51 years old from Germany was the third to come resulting in 3 hours 56 minutes. Michael deals in insurance and runs during his free time. There are 85 marathons he participated in. This was his first running event in Russia.
There were only two foreigners in the first Baikal Ice Marathon in 2005: a famous German marathoner Udo Moller and a journalist Andreas Kiefer. This year the number of foreign participants was increased up to 19 sportsmen with their companions. In their mid a famous German runner Stefan Schlett, the several world records owner and the winner of some unique crosses and runs in different parts of the world. He won some unique cross-marathons as Ship Run, The Great Wall of China Marathon, Tour du Monde and others. This time he came among the second ten of the Baikal Ice Marathon runners.
Soon after the marathon the participants applied to the president of Russia with a request to preserve Baikal lake nature. In particular the appeal claims the construction of the petroleum pipeline East Siberia – Pacific Ocean in the nearest closeness to Baikal wrong.

Press Center of Winteriada 2006