The Finland Ice Marathon 2009 held at the Kallavesi Lake in Kuopio was visited by thousands of people again this year. This yearly ice skating event is known by its beautiful natural ice and fabulous atmosphere. The Finland Ice Marathon is spread out over 4 days and consists of the Finnish Championship of 200 km, ice skating tours of 25, 50 and 100 km and a variety of (ice skating) activities for young and old.

The heroic 200 km race took place on Saturday 21 Saturday 2009. At 7 o’clock sharp the Dutch Ambassador Nicolaas Beets fired the starting pistol for the professionals. Among them were some 13 Dutch competitors. At previous editions more then 200 Dutch skaters appeared at the start. Majority of the Dutch ice skating marathon circuit had to skip Kuopio this year, due to the scheduling of other important competitions in the same week. Ambassador Nicolaas Beets, a fanatical ice skater himself, skated the 50 kilometer tour. 

The 200 kilometre Finnish Championship was won by a Dutchman Youri Takken, finishing with 7.17.13,84. Fellow countryman Hotze Zandstra came second by only two hundredths of a second. The most succesful team of the Championships was undoubtedly the Finnish-Dutch couple Jaana and Siebrand Kuiper. Jaana won the women's 25 km race and Siebrand the men's 100 km.

Several other fun-filled activities were also part of the programme. On Friday evening the kick sleding championship took place and thousands of people on ice skates made use of the 2 kilometre light track. The evening was closed with spectacular fire works. Earlier in the week thousands of school children from Kuopio and around took part in the ‘Healthy Ice Skating; School Children skating’ programme.