Winter Viking Games 2004

In the end of February 2004 the sixth annual international Winter Viking Games took place in Finland again. The Games aroused big interest long before the start. The point was that two participating teams (Viking-Nevo from Russia and Grey Wolves from Finland) have already won the Winter Viking Games twice. And in a case of their third win the main prize could belong to the winners forever. But all other teams were not going to give up without a fight. The professional bow-hunters from the Torahammas team took part in the Games for the first time.

Sergey Suhorutchenkov, the founder and the leader of the Viking-Nevo club (Smolensk, Russia): “Every year before our trip to Finland we always try to contrive something new. Before our first Games in 2000 we hardly trained the moment of skis changing in the team to spend as little time as possible during this important part of the skiing. Then we improved upon the skis and its binding and learned how to make good bows and arrows. You know, the successful skiing in the Games depends much from your bow and it is not easy to make it. The Viking-Nevo team shoots on a level with the good Finnish archers though to hit the target from the 15 meters distance is rather hard especially after ski-running.”

The previous teams of the Viking-Nevo club were very strong. But this year the club decided to give a chance to perspective young club-members who showed themselves excellently during the training. Two team’s veterans, Sergey Suhorutchenkov and Max Pryazhevsky, got the new young partners — Alexey Sivakov (15 years old) and Sofia Litvinenko (13 years old).

The Viking-Nevo team of the year 2004:

• Max Pryazhevsky,
• Alexey Sivakov,
• Sofia Litvinenko,
• Sergey Suhoruchenkov.

And this young Viking-Nevo team competed as well as the best Scandinavian teams. The winner of the Games was unclear till the last moment. Nine Vikings started the race with the first horn sounds. And straight away the Viking-Nevo team got the bad surprise — Max Pryazhevsky fall down just after the start. But he run over all others to the end of distance and came first to changing line after the bow-shooting. The Viking-Nevo team took the lead. Alexey Sivakov skied his round confidently and hit the target with the first arrow. The main rivals in the first place fight — the Torahammas team — were also shooting without misses and were keeping the second place. During the third stage one of the hunters run over Sofia Litvinenko and the Torahammas team took the lead on the last round. The finish spurt of Sergey Suhorutchenkov could not change anything. As a result the Viking-Nevo team came second.

Final standings:

1. Torahammas club (Finland),
2. Viking-Nevo club (Smolensk, Russia),
3. Rus-farers (Finland),
4. Warangians (Finland),
5. Living Middle Age (Finland),
   prize for the best ancient clothing and equipment
6. Grey Wolves (Finland),
7. NEFA (Finland),
8. Ango (Finland),
9. Viikinkiajan laiva (Finland).

However such results were expected. Sergey Suhorutchenkov: “When we took so young team to the Games we thought about our chances sensibly. But after two rounds leading we got a hope to win… Nicely that the new strong teams are appeared. We have the new level in the effort to”. On the rewarding ceremony the Viking-Nevo team as the last year winner gave the main prize to the new winners of the Winter Viking Games 2004. Following a good tradition the prize was filled up with Russian drink and everyone could taste it. The Living Middle Age team from Finland got the prize for best ancient clothing and equipment.

The team of the Viking-Nevo club thanks a lot for the invitation and for the warm hospitality the organizers of the Winter Viking Games (Dirk Schneider Sommelo Association), and also Arvo Reijonen, Seppo Suhonen, Taina Mannila, Pentti and Heli Yrjänäinen, Topi and Tanya Tapaila.