RIA Novosti learnt at the press center of the competition that Meller covered the classic marathon distance - 42.195 kilometers - in 3 hours 44 seconds and 25 seconds, emerging the sixth at the finish.
He said that half of the distance he was running well but then lost his way and was running the last 5 kilometers on snow.
"This marathon is something special", Meller said. "There are a few places in the world where you can run marathon on ice. On Lake Baikal it was harder than on Yukon in Canada", said Meller, 44, who participated in 140 long-distance runs in 30 countries.
The first place in the Baikal marathon belongs to Arkadi Kalikhman, 57, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, from Irkutsk. Over 30 years as a marathoner he took part in 100 events. His today's record is 3 hours 8 minutes and 43 seconds.
It is interesting that the second and third place also belong to Irkutsk marathoner scientists.
The Baikal ice marathon was held within the framework of the 3rd international winter games festival Zimniada-2005. The vast program of this festival, which opened on February 23, included, alongside traditional sports, dog-team race and ice fishing, and a number of extreme and ethnographic expeditions.
