Sport knows no borders
The Barents Sport Days mark the opening of the Barents Spektakel festival in Kirkenes.
Last weekend some 300 athletes from Norway, Russia and Finland gathered in Kirkenes for two days of cross-border fraternization and friendly competitions.
Teams from the three countries held parallel competitions in swimming, wrestling, football, ice hockey and cross-country skiing.
View slide show from the Barents Sports Days
The event started with a torchlight procession through the streets of Kirkenes and was officially opened by the town’s Mayor Linda Randal.
On Saturday 50 sport leaders and trainers from all the four Barents countries met for a conference where they summed up results of cooperation so far and pointed out the main directions for the future. Cooperation between sport clubs in Finnmark and the Murmansk region goes back to 1960.
By Trude Pettersen, BarentsObserver.com