Heat freaks sweat it out at Sauna World Championships

HEINOLA, Finland -- Braving 230-degree heat, a dozen men and women sweated in wooden cubicles Saturday as long as they could stand it, aiming to grab the Sauna World Championship title in southern Finland.

With a time of 13 minutes, Belorussian Natalia Trifanova won the Sauna Queen title under the watch of doctors and judges, beating out local favorite Annikki Peltonen.

"I'm pink but happy," beamed Trifanova, 36, a music teacher from Minsk, displaying blotchy red neck and arms. "I got a lot of satisfaction sitting in there today. It's an extreme sport for me."

Runner-up Peltonen, last year's winner, reeled out of the wooden sauna 12 seconds before the champion, saved from collapsing to the ground by a team of stewards.

The men's winner, Timo Kaukonen, a Finn from nearby Lahti, lasted 16 minutes, 15 seconds. He beat three-time champion Leo Pusa from the capital, Helsinki, by 7 seconds.

About 3,000 spectators cheered wildly as the finalists -- six women and six men -- sat in separate wide-windowed hexagonal saunas on the stage of an outdoor theater in this sleepy lakeside town, 85 miles northeast of Helsinki.

Showers inside spurted water every 30 seconds onto the sauna stones, intensifying the heat.

Before the final round, competitors included 65 men and 15 women from Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine, as well as the three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Regulations are strict.

Contestants must have a doctor's certificate to prove they are fit. No rubbing of the skin or slouching is allowed, and elbows must be held on one's knees. All forms of medication, including being intoxicated, are forbidden.

Contestants also wore bathing suits, though Finns -- who take saunas once or twice a week -- usually do it naked.

"We needed some sort of aesthetic cover for our contestants," said Matti Nieminen, the manager of the event. "Otherwise, people wouldn't enter."