Silvennoinen, Lipiäinen win Helsinki Marathon

Finnish runner Janne Silvennoinen became champion in men’s category and ultrarunner Satu Lipiäinen became champion in women’s category in the BMW Helsinki Marathon 2023 that took place on Saturday.

Silvennoinen from Helsinki took 2 hours, 31 minutes and 9 seconds to finish the race followed by Jonas Müller from German Club Roadrunners Südbaden and German Robert Unger from Spiridon Frankfurt Club.

Müller became runner-up finishing in 2 hours, 34 minutes and 1 second while Unger took 2 hours, 35 minutes and 16 seconds to secure the third place.

Satu Lipiäinen from Finnish Untra Running Club Sisu (Ultrajuoksuseura Sisu) secured the first place among the women, finishing the race in 2 hours, 42 minutes and 26 seconds.

Lipiäinen from Lappeenranta earlier set a woman’s 12-hour world record at Kokkola this year.

Joanna Drewnicka-Ogrodnik of Poland and Nadezda Sumonina of Alicante, Spain became the second and the third among the women.

Drewnicka-Ogrodnik took 3 hours, 15 minutes and 56 seconds while Sumonina took 3 hours, 20 minutes and 7 seconds to complete the race.

“It felt great after I won the Helsinki Marathon. My time is better than I expected and I did not face any significant problems during the competition,” Lipiäinen told the Daily Finland after the marathon.

About 4,000 runners participated in the marathon this year that took place in downtown Helsinki streets.

The marathon featured categories such as 10km, half marathon, marathon relay, marathon and kids.

According to the organizers, the objective of the event was to ensure that participants would enjoy it and join again.

“The main thing of the race is to have fun and achieve your own goals,” Tapani Virtanen, race director of the Helsinki Marathon told the Daily Finland.