World Sauna championships

The first Sauna Bathing World Championships were organized in 1999. This competition was warmly greeted: there were competitors from all over Finland; there were official qualifying rounds in Sweden. Among the competitors there were also people from Holland and Germany. The event had viewers by the thousands; there were several television companies from Finland, France and Germany. The whole event became a great sports event as it also had a Finnish sports commentator Antero Mertaranta making an account of the finals. The winners of 1999 were Ahti Merivirta from Helsinki and Katri Kämäräinen from Hollola. There were no finalists from abroad!