The story
Sulkava Rowing Race in Sulkava
Sulkava Rowing Race, first held in 1968 with just thirty-eight competitors, has grown into Finland's biggest rowing race, held every July on the lakes of Sulkava in Southern Savonia. Competitors row traditional forty-foot, fourteen-seat church boats, historically used to ferry rural communities to services, and the event now draws seven to eight thousand competitors and around twenty thousand spectators.
The first Sulkava Rowing Race was held in 1968 with just thirty-eight competitors, won by sixty-seven-year-old Einari Luukkonen in a time of eight hours, twenty-nine minutes, and forty seconds, a grueling result that set the tone for what has become Finland's biggest rowing race and a genuine test of endurance rather than a short sprint event.