Jukola-relay
The beginning of the story
The story of the Jukola relay begins in 1948 when Kaukametsäläiset ry. was established. Kaukametsäläiset ry. is responsible for arranging the Jukola relay in the spirit of the “seven brothers” by Aleksis Kivi. The Jukola is composed of the "Jukola" relay (7 men in a team) and the "Venla" relay (4 women in a team). The first Jukola relay arranged for the first time in 1949 in Helsinki region. Since then the Jukola relay has been arranged annually in different sites around Finland. For the ladies, an individual race with common start was organized in 1951 and it then was turned into a relay race in 1978.
The big event
Nowadays Jukola relay is one of the biggest orienteering contests in the world. There are 12 000 – 13 000 partisipants every year. About 900 teams in the Venla relay and 1300 Jukola teams take part to the competition every year. The relay has become more and more international during the last years. The proportion of the international teams is about 20 %. The majority of the foreign teams come from Sweden and Norway. The competition centre gathers totally a crowd of 30 000 - 40 000 people. Among them, one can distinguish orienteers, trainers, media, family members and the audience. When we add another 1200-1500 organizers, you can imagine how massive organization is needed to arrange this event. Most people spend the whole night in the competition centre, in and outside of the thousands of tents.
The celebration of the whole orienteering family
Although the Jukola relay is a competition for the elite orienteers and for the top teams in the world, the majority of the teams consist of amateurs. For amateur teams just part take and especially finishing are challenges. Most of them come from companies, but there are also groups of people sharing the same passion or hobby, some family teams, etc. The amateur teams want to experience the atmosphere of the Jukola and its challenge. Competitors are 14 – 70 years old though there is no upper age limit. The Jukola relay gathers together orienteers from all levels and from all age groups.
A day full of atmosphere
The start of the Venla relay takes place on Saturday afternoon around 3 pm and the fastest teams cross the finish line approximately 3 hours after the start. The men’ relay begin at the same night around 11 pm. The runners of the 2nd – 3rd legs have to carry the headlights. The winning team of the Jukola relay crosses the finishing line at 6-7 am on Sunday morning. The last teams come to finish just before the finish is closed at 2pm. The competition centre will be closing during the afternoon when the last competitors are heading home.
Source: www.jukola.com
