A Jubilee Marathon was held in Stockholm yesterday, to commemorate the same event exactly 100 years ago - The 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games. 7,652 finished the race, which had four best times since the reenactment course ended up being 40,200 meters rather than today's official 42,195. Italy's Hermann Achmueller was fastest on the shorter course, arriving at the Olympic Stadium after 2.28,14 while Michael Mustaniemi came in fastest on the official distance 2.35,22. Among women, Anna von Schenck came in first on the shorter, with the time 2.48,48 and Jenny Nilsson took home first place at the official distance with 2.57,49

100 years ago 69 runners ran Stockholm marathon for the first time during the 1912 Summer Olympics. The Stockholm Jubilee Marathon started at the exact time it did in 1912, the pistol went off at 1:48 pm just like it did then. Shots were fired by Svea Livgardes Musikteaterkår, which fired paper cartridges filled with black powder. After that, however, it’s all back to normal with modern electronic timing. Lasse Hagström who has both run and worked with the Stockholm marathon for many years, has been one of the project leaders and worked full-time since the beginning of the year to put together the jubilee marathon. 10,473 runners registered. Of these 2,555 were women.

“It’s a bit different from 1912, when there were only 69 runners. Now we had runners from 65 nations,” said Hagström, who makes no secret of the fact that it required a great deal of logistics to make it all work out. If you thought it was all about copying the Stockholm marathon, then think again. This time it was about running more or less the same route as in 1912, from the Stadium to Sollentuna church and back. This way the runners avoided Västerbron (part of the regular Stockholm Marathon in early June). “But this could actually be worse,” says Hagström and shows a sketch over the route. The hill up at Järva krog and the slowly sloping mount at Helenelund are not easy. The entire route is 39 kilometers (24.2 miles). Following the start at the Stadium, the runners ran one loop around before disappearing out on Valhallavägen.

About 50% of the route followed the original 1912 route.

For more information, see www.jubileumsmarathon.se