Photo: Kaisu Ojansivu / Jämsä-Jukola 2013.
Now it’s definite: Louna-Jukola will be the biggest Jukola of all time.
The result of registering at normal fee having ended at midnight is dumbfounding: a record-breaking 17,717 participants in Venla and Jukola relays together. The number of registered teams is over 3,100, nearly 1,400 of which in the Venla relay and appr. 1,750 in the Jukola relay.
Consequently, the record up to now set at Valio-Jukola in 2012 (16,667 participants) will be broken by at least over 1,000 participants. Registering to Louna-Jukola at a higher fee continues until June 3rd, so the final numbers will still increase from the current – especially since those teams registered but not yet having paid their fees are not included in the above numbers.
The Event Manager of Louna-Jukola, Janne Virtanen, is pleased with the number of entrants.
– From the start of our seven-year-long project the goal has been to organize the greatest Jukola Relay ever – in terms of both quantity and quality. So far we’ve been successful, and during the last month just started we’ll make everything for that both competitors and the public are as happy about the event as possible, promises Virtanen.
There will be teams from 21 different countries, including Iceland and Luxembourg for the first time in Jukola. Single participants from even more countries will certainly be present, but these are not regarded in the statistics. After Finland, Sweden and Norway, most teams have been registered from Latvia, Russia, Estonia and Switzerland. As in previous years, appr. 20 per cent of all teams are non-Finnish.
