1990: The smallest margin of victory in history

Just like Douglas Wakiihuro the year before, the Kenyan Simon Robert Naali stayed at Bosön during the summer and had plenty of time to familiarize himself with the course.

The rain made the track muddy and heavy, but it didn't seem to bother the favorite who completed virtually the entire race accompanied only by his younger brother Thomas Robert Naali.

He hung on all the way and not even on the muddy home stretch at Grönsta did the gap increase, and Simon won by just one second – the smallest victory margin in the history of the race. The time 1:37:45 can be compared to the 2:13:04 he had as the winner of the Stockholm Marathon four months earlier, which made him the first to win the two biggest long-distance races in Stockholm in the same year.

The best Swede, as so many times before, was Mats Erixon who finished fourth and once again went under 1:40.

In the women's 15 km, Angela Tooby made a comeback and won with almost the exact same time, 54:46, with the best Swedish competitor finishing fourth in the form of Anki Hagberg from Råby-Rekarne.

In collaboration with the Stockholm Marathon, the Strength Challenge was carried out with SJ as the sponsor. All 2,232 runners who completed both the Stockholm Marathon and the Lidingö Race’s 30 km received a special pennant as a souvenir. For the first time, the Lidingö Race’s 30 km was included in Oddset. The turnover was 47,800 SEK, and the winner, Simon Robert Naali, paid out only 1.23.

1991: Pushed hard all the way – Bergman a big exclamation mark

The 27th Lidingöloppet was a repeat of last year in terms of the scenario at the finish line where reigning champion Simon Robert Naali was once again involved. On the last mile, he was only accompanied by Boniface Merande and Lameck Aguta, and the latter completely fell behind on Abborrbacken, making the final kilometers a two-man battle.

Both seemed to rest a bit before the sprint and in the slight downhill at Grönsta gärde, the pace was insanely fast and it was Merande who, 40 meters from the finish line, took the lead and won after rounding a couple of poles and photographers who were in the line of sight to the finish corral.

The winning time was 1:38:41 with Naali two seconds behind, and then it took no more than 14 seconds before the sensation Magnus Bergman crossed the finish line. In his debut on the thirty-kilometer race, he suffered from a stitch after ten kilometers but it eased, and on the last ten kilometers, he was strong.
– I even saw the leading duo at the end which was inspiring, Magnus recounted.

Magnus ran solo for almost the entire race and was as close as ten seconds behind the leading duo before they started the final sprint. Örjan Hemström was the second-best Swede, finishing fourth with a time of 1:40:48, followed by Anders Karlsson from Linköping in fifth place with a time of 1:40:59. The skier Christer Majbäck maintained a good pace throughout and finished eighth with a time of 1:42:35, while Jonny Danielson, who came fifth in the European Championships 5000 m, lost a lot of ground towards the end and only came in 33rd with a time of 1:48:56.

The women's class was won by the Chinese Wang Yanfang even though she had never been abroad before. The winning time was 54.17, which was 21 seconds ahead of Norway's Grete Kirkeberg, with Midde Hamrin in third place at 55.34.

1992: Record-breaking run by Bergman

The dream of a Swedish victory in the thirty-kilometer race grew stronger after Magnus Bergman's fine performance the previous year, and in 1992 he was even better. The weather was really good with twelve degrees and a dry and fine track.

Magnus's stated goal was to record the best Swedish time and he also started offensively, keeping up with debutant Benson Masya and Onesmo Ludago halfway through. Then he was forced to let go but gained a position when Ludago faltered on Abborrbacken and closed in on Masya who, however, maintained control. He won with a time of 1:37:12, with Magnus in second place at 1:37:24, thus improving Pär Wallin's six-year-old Swedish record by 42 seconds to 1:38:24.

On the women's side, for the first time there was a Kenyan victory thanks to 19-year-old Tegla Loroupe who was leading by 15 seconds two kilometers from the finish. But Norway's Anita Håkenstad never gave up and when the 40 kg light Loroupe was slightly slowed down by the large victory wreath, in the end, there was only a two-second difference – 53.22 to 53.24! The best Swedish finisher was Magdalena Thorsell in eighth place.

In the Lidingö Relay, which took place on Friday, 1140 teams and a total of 4416 runners completed the race, setting a record. The Lidingö Race accepted the challenge from the Vasaloppet to donate 90 öre to the Cancer Foundation for each finisher in the thirty-kilometer race and in the women's 15 km race. Additionally, the same amount was donated for those in the Little Lidingö Race, and together the contribution amounted to 15,533 SEK.

1993: Kenya, Kenya, Kenya – and Annemari Sandell

The East African dominance was particularly evident in the 1993 race, resulting in a Kenyan clean sweep after four Africans battled it out at the end. 23-year-old Benson Masya, who won the previous year, dropped out, and instead, it became a fierce sprint finish between the two 20-year-olds Josphat Ndeti and Mwangangi Muindi.

Both had World Junior Championship medals from the previous year on their list of achievements, but neither of them had competed at such a long distance before. This did not prevent them from having plenty of power in their legs in the final stages, and Ndeti managed to push himself a second ahead at the finish line to win with a time of 1:37:29.

The best Swede was Jonny Danielson from Kvarnsveden who, for the first time, completed the entire distance by reaching the goal in 1:40:03.

In the women's class, only 16-year-old cross-country specialist Annemari Sandell from Finland won her first victory by defeating the favorite Catherina McKiernan by 26 seconds. The best Swedish for the second year in a row was Magdalena Thorsell in ninth place.

The "second running wave" reached its peak for the Lidingö Race in 1993 when a record number of 31,477 participants was noted. It was the second time the race exceeded thirty thousand, and it would only happen once more in the following thirteen years.

New for the year was the Lidingö Women's Race of 10 km which, however, did not replace the elite class's 15 km, that happened first in 2002.

1994: New second battle at Grönsta field

The longing for a Swedish victory in the men's 30 km and women's 15 km was so strong that Lidingöloppet in 1994 decided to start a fund and annually allocate 30,000 and 20,000 kronor respectively to the first Swedish man/woman who managed to win. This surely inspired the domestic long-distance elite, although they found it tough to assert themselves against the stiff African competition.

The 30th Lidingöloppet ended once again with a sprint finish where Benson Masya, winner two years earlier, proved to have the situation under control as he raced side by side with his compatriot William Musyoki. With a time of 1:37:02, he won by two seconds and with two more men finishing within half a minute, it was perhaps the best top field ever. The best Swede was 23-year-old marathon runner Anders Szalkai, who finished tenth with a time of 1:41:11.

In the women's class, the 145 cm tall and 40 kg light Tegla Loroupe came back and repeated her victory from 1992 by this time having a comfortable winning margin of 31 seconds over Catherina McKiernan who finished second for the second year in a row. The fastest of the Swedish women was Midde Hamrin who came ninth with a time of 56:10.

1995: British triumph for Sara Wedlund's breakthrough

After six consecutive African victories, it was surprisingly a Brit who was the fastest in the 1995 race. Not all winners have come optimally prepared to the Lidingö Race, and Paul Evans belongs to that category, who as late as a week before the race had never heard of the competition and decided to start only on the Wednesday before the race.

The 34-year-old Evans managed to keep three experienced Kenyans behind him thanks to a two-kilometer-long sprint and improved by nine seconds to 1:36:01. The trio of Benson Masya, William Musyoki, and Jimmy Muindi followed within ten seconds.

That Paul Evans was happy and satisfied was unmistakable:

– This is an incredible race! It's truly man versus the course and the distance! But when my coach called me the Monday before and asked if I was interested in running a 30 km cross-country in Sweden, I just hung up the phone because I thought it sounded completely insane. However, I couldn't shake the thought, so by Wednesday I decided to take on the challenge – and I really don't regret it.

– There is nothing like it anywhere in the world because it is much tougher than a marathon. You can never rest but must work hard all the time as the course constantly varies and the mood swings along at the same pace.

The women's race was also exciting and particularly enjoyable from a Swedish perspective as the rising star Sara Wedlund pushed Annemari Sandell and with a time of 53.07 was just over half a minute behind. The time matched Malin Wästlund's eight-year-old Swedish record.

A few months after the race, one of the founders of the Lidingöloppet, Karl-Erik “Kacke” Karlberg, passed away at the age of 71. His contributions and interest in the Lidingöloppet, especially in marketing, greatly shaped the event and as recently as 1985, he managed to sell a six-page presentation of the Lidingöloppet in SAS magazine “Scanorama” with a circulation of 600,000 copies.

1996: Sensational time by Sara

With participants from 27 nations and five continents, new records were set even though the total number of registered runners at 26,045 was more than five thousand short of the record. The big exclamation mark was Sara Wedlund who followed up her second place from the previous year with a celebrated victory in the 15 km – the first Swedish woman to win in 21 years.

Not since Inger Knutsson won in 1975 had a Swedish woman been the first to cross the finish line at Grönsta, but now it happened!

After securing a spot in the 5000 m final at the Atlanta Olympics, Sara didn't give two-time winner Annemari Sandell a chance in what was the second fastest race of all time. The two took off right from the start and halfway through, the Finnish runner had to let go. Not even on the uphill Abborrbacken did Sara show any signs of fatigue, maintaining her pace and form all the way to a sensational finish in 51.15. Only Grete Waitz had run faster with her 51.03 on the identical 15.2 km course, and that was just once (1980). Sandell also ran a great race but was still almost three-quarters of a minute behind.

In the men's race, the first three finished under the old course record (1:36:01) and in the absence of the ailing last year's winner Paul Evans, it became a completely Kenyan affair as they took the first seven places. The victory went to the feather-light William Musyoki who won unchallenged in 1:35:14. The best Swede was Flemingsberg's Alfred Shemweta in ninth place with a time of 1:38:52.

On March 8th, the 500,000th runner registered for the Lidingöloppet. It was Mari Lovik, 21, from Täby who was randomly selected as the half-millionth person to sign up that day for one of the Lidingöloppet's events. During the race itself, 19-year-old Peter Wernklev from Bergstena outside Borås became the 400,000th runner to cross the finish line.

1997: A new Kenyan winner

Every Lidingöloppet has its winner and in 1997 his name was Isaac Chemobwo. It was a completely new name and the trip to Sweden was actually his very first racing tour outside his home country of Kenya. Not yet 24 years old, he didn't have much experience and there were few who believed he would maintain the lead all the way when he immediately left the others behind at the starting line.

He immediately set a record pace, and when he later described his tactics, they were truly of a different model.

– Since I'm not that good on hills and because I knew there were some tough ones towards the end, I thought it was best to get the biggest lead possible before them, explained Chemobwo.

So when the experienced runners went in to conserve energy to endure the heavy final mile including the legendary Abborrbacken, Chemobwo decided to run as fast as possible up to the hill. However, the weakness in the uphill was greatly exaggerated and he barely noticed Abborrbacken.

In the end, it was only because he politely waited for the flower girl Agneta Rosenblad and therefore slowed down in the very last meters that the course record from the previous year – William Musyoki's 1:35:14 – survived by two seconds. Chemobwo's race was considered a better performance than Musyoki's since he ran solo from the first step in windy weather while Musyoki had both better weather and help with pacing.
The runner-up in the race was Musyoki himself, who was a minute behind, followed by another four Kenyans. The best Swede was Peter Koskenkorva with a time of 1:39:53, making him the ninth Swede to go under 1:40.

In the women's race, Sara Wedlund took the spotlight for the third consecutive year. After injuries throughout the year, the Lidingöloppet was her first competition in ten months. She did not join Gunhild Halle's and Annemari Sandell's early rush but caught up after a few kilometers. Then the Finnish runner went on the offensive and only Sara kept up. That was the order at the Grönsta checkpoint after ten kilometers and it remained the same all the way to the finish.

Annemari smiled from start to finish, winning with a time of 52.19, ahead of Sara with 53.48 and Leah Malot from Kenya with 55.16.

New for the year was The Last Mile, The Women's Race (4 km), The Children's Race, and the veteran class M70 10 km. A four-meter-wide road was built from Grönstavägen and forward past the finish line and on to the Grönsta parking lot, as well as a new ambulance entrance. The new roads enabled safer and better conditions for setup before and during the race.

1998: The record-breaking race of Chemobwo

The 34th Lidingöloppet was a repeat of the previous year as both Isaac Chemobwo and Annemari Sandell repeated their victories. In the men's race, a high pace was set from the start and since several runners kept up, Chemobwo had good support for the first two miles and was then able to run solo to the finish line.

With an amazing 1:33:33, he beat William Musyoki's two-year-old track record by nearly two minutes, averaging 3:07 per kilometer. The top three all finished under 1:37, with Philip Rugut taking second place with a time of 1:34:27, also well under the old record. The battle to be the best Swede was tough between Spårvägen runners Andreas Carlborg and Mattias Persson, with the latter pulling ahead to finish eighth at 1:40:39 – 20 seconds before Andreas.

In the women's race, Annemari Sandell won in the absence of Sara Wedlund seemingly with ease, and with a time of 53.52 was almost two minutes ahead of the runner-up Marie Söderström-Lundberg from Hässelby.

One of the major course changes at the Lidingöloppet was made when the start of the 15 km was moved from Fågelöudde to Hustegaholm. Consequently, the 15 km distance was extended from 15.2 to 15.3 km. This meant that a hundred miles of bus transportation were saved as the runners instead had to walk the 1.5 km from the bib distribution at Lidingövallen to Hustegaholm.

1999: Fifth victory for Sandell

The 35th anniversary included, among other things, a party for the hundred or so runners who have run every Lidingö Race since its inception in 1965, the fifty or so officials who have been involved in at least thirty races, and many others. A dinner was served in the finish area and was enjoyed in what can be described as summer weather.

In the 30-kilometer race, Magnus Bergman made a comeback after a few years marred by injuries and finished fifth and as the best Swede with a time of 1:38:31. When he turned into the final stretch, only the winner had crossed the finish line and he was just half a minute behind the second place after, as always, having a strong final 10 kilometers. The Kenyan dominance was once again evident, ending with a two-minute victory for Barnabas Kosgei with a time of 1:36:01 followed by four compatriots.

In the women's class, 22-year-old Annemari Sandell took her fifth victory, which would turn out to be her last. With a time of 54.35, she was just under a minute ahead of Norway's Gunhild Halle, with Marie Söderström-Lundberg in third place.

37 runners who have completed 25 races of 30 km were assigned personal bib numbers starting with 1001, which they could keep as long as they continued to run the thirty-kilometer race. The four lowest numbers were given to the four who have finished all previous Lidingö races.

For the first time, the Open Race was held over two days, on May 8 and August 14, at distances of 10, 15, 20, and 30 km. A total of 103 runners completed the race over the two days. The runners had running chips with which they stamped in and received split times at every fifth kilometer. The open race was only held for three years and was discontinued in 2001 due to lack of interest.