The frozen Siberian lake had been hit by a blizzard and blustery winds, and there was thick snow underfoot, but these were relatively benign conditions for the extreme marathon runners competing there on Sunday.
Temperatures have in the past have plunged as low as minus-30°C at the Ice Marathon over Russia’s Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake and where runners converge annually to run a full marathon (42.195km) or a half marathon (21.0975km).
On a few occasions, cracks on the route’s icy surface have opened up in the middle of the race.
“The weather was really good today,” Denis Merenkov, 45, said after completing the half marathon. “Two years ago, it was much worse.”
Spaced out over long distances in poor visibility, competitors are sometimes only able to see the white snow underfoot and the white falling from the sky.
Weather conditions can change quickly and organizers cap the number of competitors at 132 so that they can ensure everyone’s safety.
Runners travel from across the world to take part and the temperature this year hovered between minus-10°C and minus-12°C.
“I love running, I love nature and I love extreme conditions — and it’s perfect,” said Andrea Dablander from Austria, who won the women’s marathon. “It was the perfect race, really.”
However, not everyone was so chipper at the finish line and one man lay in the snow, as someone tried to help him to his feet.
Despite the surreal spectacle and adverse weather, organizers seemed more surprised that the competitors had made it to the start line, with flight and travel restrictions in place to halt the spread of COVID-19.
“Despite the coronavirus, they all made it here — from 31 countries,” Alexei Nikiforov said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier