"IT WASN'T fun after two or three minutes." That was the verdict of Ossi Arvela, organiser of the sauna world championships.
A total of 160 men and women from 23 countries participated in the weekend's tenth annual championships in Finland, with locals dominating due to what Leila Kulin, the winner of the women's title, described as "sisu" – usually translated as perseve
rance.
Bjarne Hermansson of Finland outlasted the competition and endured the heat for 18 minutes, 15 seconds.
"I have been training a lot with my brother to achieve this win," he said after he was crowned the 2008 champion late on Saturday.
Kulin sweated her way to the women's title with a time of 5.22 minutes in the sauna.
Usually, people stay in a sauna for about five minutes at a time – and that is without the extreme humidity of the competition saunas.
Finland, where saunas are about as numerous as cars and a part of everyday life, has dominated the men's contest since it began a decade ago, but Belarussians have often captured the women's title, so Kulin's win was a bit of an upset.
The contest was held in Heinola, 130 kilometres north of Helsinki, where saunas were heated to 110C and a half litre of water was poured on the sizzling stones every 30 seconds.
"The main rules have not changed since the beginning of the competition ten years ago," Mr Arvela said. "We have six men or women sitting inside the sauna (on each round] and the winner is the last one to leave.
"There are no world records … we cannot control all the factors, like the temperature of the sauna or the water thrown into the stove."
When the championship started in 1999, five countries and 60 contestants took part.
