Organizers have thanked the 1,500 people who volunteered their time to make the weekend's Tallinn Ironman triathlon a success.

This year's event was particularly tough due to the severe weather conditions, which left some athletes at risk of suffering from exposure. The start and finish lines were at the Unibet Arena, where facilities were set up to cater to the roughly 7,500 competitors.

The full Ironman triathlon took place Saturday, with the half-distance version (70.3) following on Sunday. However, there was little rest for some of the volunteers between the two events – they were unable to clock off until around 2 a.m., when the final finishers of the main event crossed the line (even the eventual winner was not home and dry till mid-afternoon).

Worse still, Estonia was being buffeted by storms from Saturday afternoon onward, which made the lives of competitors and volunteers alike all the tougher – even some of the tents provided for shelters came loose from their moorings in the high winds, and portable toilets blew over as well. Nonetheless, on Sunday, everyone was back on duty, and the weather cooperated this time too.

One such volunteer was Reform Party MP Pipi-Liis Siemann, whose own partner was competing.

"Fortunately, the weather today was better than we feared, so I believe everyone will make it to the finish. I'm also waiting for my husband, who is out on the course today," Siemann told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Chief organizer Ain-Alar Juhanson said the competition simply could not have gone ahead without the 1,500 volunteers.

"I have to say, it's been an incredibly great team. In all that rain, our volunteers were sitting at the aid stations without tents, as they had blown away. They were out there in the rain for six hours serving our athletes," Juhanson noted.

The volunteers' main tasks were directing traffic, pointing athletes — many of them professional internationals — to the right places and helping them with the transition from the swimming phase to the cycling phase, and then from the cycling stage to the final marathon or half-marathon run. They also handed out medals and looked after spectators, among other jobs.

Siemann said she had for several years already served as a lifeguard at the Ironman swimming stage. This time, too, she was there on a stand-up paddleboard at Lake Raku, keeping participants safe. This was the first event where the lake, just south of the city, was used, and conditions were tough there too.

"The lifeguard's job is to keep an eye on people's lives and health, but of course we also help them stay on course. With yesterday's [Saturday's – ed.] fog, that wasn't particularly easy. People wanted to know where the next point, the next buoy was. Even today, when visibility is better, people can easily lose their sense of direction when they get fatigued. Then, even before the finish, they ask how much farther it is, and we have to motivate them and say 'come on, it's only a few hundred meters, not much more'!" Siemann recounted.

Karoli Sõmermaa, from Paide, was another volunteer, and she managed to get a friend, Enrico Anton, to take part this year too. They also had their share of memorable moments during the stormy competition.

"One portable toilet blew over, and the athletes came inside still shivering, and they were vomiting and fainting, so it was actually very difficult to watch and you have to be emotionally prepared for that," Sõmermaa noted.

"We mostly worked indoors yesterday. When they came in, they were shivering all over, and for some of them we had to call in medics to help," Anton added.

The full Ironman was won by Frenchman Remi Conte in a time of eight hours and eight minutes, while local competitor Henry Räppo won the 70.3 event in a time of three hours 38 minutes. The first woman finisher in the full triathlon was  Finland's Laura Jalasto, and Liis Kapten, an Estonian, battled hard to come third in the half-triathlon —  Italy's Marta Bernardi.

The original "Aktuaalne kaamera" segment is here.

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