Tallinn Marathon to go ahead on Saturday

All participants in the largest sports event in Estonia will wear face masks, while foreign runners and amateurs compete online

On Saturday, 12 September, the Estonian and Tallinn marathon championships will take place in the Reidi tee and Pirita tee areas of the capital city. Welcoming the event, the Mayor of Tallinn, Mikhail Kõlvart, a top athlete himself with a career in boxing and Taekwondo, said that the Tallinn Marathon is a well-known trade mark that has a significant impact on the economy of both Estonia and Tallinn.

“The Tallinn Marathon is the largest sports event in the Baltic States, which has become historic for Estonia in terms of the number of participants, and traditionally attracts at least ten thousand athletes from 50 countries. The organization of such major competitions helps to raise awareness of the environment and mobility among residents, and also promotes sustainable transport. The Tallinn Marathon events have attracted a quarter of a million sports fans to an active lifestyle over ten years,” Kõlvart told the municipal website.

According to the Tallinn Marathon organizer, Mati Lilliallik, the keywords for this year’s event are safety and risk reduction.

“Only citizens of the Republic of Estonia who have fulfilled the 136 standards set by the Athletics Association will be able to participate in the championship,” said Mati Lilliallik. - It will be a kind of "elite race", the organizers of which did everything to ensure its safety. All team members will wear face masks. Along with the distance judges, the police and security firms will be on duty on site. The number of service personnel exceeds the number of participants."

Virtual races for foreigners and amateurs

Due to the coronavirus threat, foreign runners and amateur athletes will not mix with the marathon participants this year, taking part in parallel virtual races instead, from 1 to 30 September. The most popular distance of the virtual races is the "combo-marathon", and among the participants there is Estonian Gerd Kanter, former Olympic and world champion discus thrower.

“It often seems that an ordinary person is unable to complete a full marathon distance at one push, while a distance split over a month suits everyone,” said Kanter, who started on 1 September and has covered 20 kilometres so far.

Drivers and pedestrians are asked to familiarize themselves with the traffic information about the race and avoid entering the competition route.