The Finnish Athletics Championships, which are known as ''Kalevan kisat'' in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, were first held in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

in 1907. Since then, they have been held in a different location every year. In the beginning, women were not allowed to compete in the Finnish Championships.

The Kaleva Cup

In 1909, the personnel at the

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

''Kaleva'' donated a trophy called the ''Kalevan malja'' or the Kaleva Cup to be awarded to and kept for until the next Championships by the team accumulating the most points during the competition. In 1909, the Finnish Championships started to be informally referred to as the ''Kaleva Games'' because of the name of the cup. At the Championships held in

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

in 1915, the magazine Suomen Urheilulehti started to call the competition the ''Kaleva Games'' in its headlines. In 1937, at the Championships held in

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

, the Finnish athletics

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

called Finnish Athletics (''Suomen Urheiluliitto'' in Finnish) formally declared the name of the Finnish Championships to be the Kaleva Games.

History

Championships records

Women

References

External links

*
Finnish Athletics
{{National championships in athletics Recurring sporting events established in 1907 National athletics competitions Athletics competitions in Finland