In accordance with old tradition at that day all men are giving gifts to their wives, girls-friends, daughters, sisters, mothers or grandmothers. Ski-enthusiasts from sport club "Alpha-Bitza" decided to present to their women the sport event - cross-country ski race 21 years ago. Since then Bitza ski marathon has annually collected hundreds of xc fans. This year the tradition continued, and exactly at midday the start signal was given to XVIII Bitza ski marathon.
Weather conditions this day were comfortable for participants. 413 men finished the distance of 50 km and 72 women have completed a distance
of 37.5 km.Andrey Vedenin (Moscow, СК "Alpha-Bitza") - son of Olympic champion Vyacheslav Vedenin - won the marathon with time of 2:09:40.4. Konohova
Ksenia (Moscow Region, Dmitrov) won the women distance with result 1:42:32.0. All women were awarded spring tulips bouquets at the finish line.
Contributed by Ilya Evseev
