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Estonia

Exciting sporting facts

Weightlifting
In 1920 Estonia took part in the Olympic Games for the first time ever. During the games, which were held in Antwerp, the Estonian Alfred Neuland won the weightlifting gold medal in the lightweight category (up to 67.5 kilograms). Four years later, in the 1924 Paris Olympics, Neuland had obviously put on weight because this time he won the middleweight silver medal (up to 75 kilograms)!

Too tired to win
During the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Alfred Asikainen from Finland and Martin Klein from Russia wrestled for an amazing 10 hours and 15 minutes. Afterwards they were too exhausted to compete against the Swede Claes Johansson, who consequently won the gold medal without any fight at all.


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Official name
Republic of Estonia

Location in Europe

National flag

National holiday
24th February: declaration of independence (from Russia in 1918)

Political system
Parliamentary democracy since 28th June 1992

Area
45,227 km2
More than 1,500 islands are situated off the mainland, the biggest of which are Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Muhu.

Population
1,400,000

Capital
Tallinn

International dialling code
00372

Country code
EST

Largest cities
Tallinn 408,000 inhabitants
Tartú 101,901 inhabitants
Narva 75,211 inhabitants
Kohtla-Järve 68,533 inhabitants
Párnu 51,807 inhabitants

Highest mountain
Suur Munamägi 318 m

Longest river
Narwa 77 km
The largest lake is Lake Peipsi, the forth largest lake in Europe, with a total area of 35,555 km2

Currency
1 Estonian Kroon = 100 Senti, exchange rate (at the beginning of 2005): 1 Kroon = 0,06 EUR