Finland has a record-breaking team at the European Championship, but there is no actual goal for a medal, at least not yet – “Famous scorers are one measure”

Like the World Championships in Oregon, the Finnish athletics EC team is also very large. The team was supplemented on Tuesday with 41 athletes. 19 athletes had already been selected for the competition team.

On August 8, the Finnish Sports Federation will select the men’s and women’s 4 x 100-meter and women’s 400-meter relay teams, so the final composition is almost 70 athlete categories. This is the biggest competition team of all time that Finland has had outside of home competitions.

The most noteworthy thing about the team is that on the women’s side, Finland has an athlete in almost every sport. Only the long jump and the 3,000-meter hurdles do not have a Finnish woman.

– We have representation in every sport form of the European Championships, either in men or women. It tells about the extent of what we currently have in domestic athletics, the Finnish Sports Confederation’s head of coaching Tuomo Salonen says.

Finland has full representation (three athletes) in no less than nine different sports. Finland, on the other hand, has four athletes in the women’s marathon. Salonen explains what it’s all about.

– There is a team competition in connection with the European Championships marathon. Normally, three athletes per country are allowed to participate, but due to the team competition, the maximum number is six. The rule is that if there are at least two eligible athletes for the individual competition, the team can be filled to capacity, Salonen opens.

There are more eligible athletes in the men’s javelin and women’s javelin than are allowed to participate in the games. In the men’s javelin, they are fighting for the last representative place Toni Keränen, Toni Kuusela and Topias Laine. In the women’s moukari, they are fighting for the last race ticket Sara Killinen and Suvi Koskinen. The third representatives will be chosen after the Kaleva Games.

The large size of the Finnish team in both the World Championships in Oregon and the European Championships in Munich will test the finances of the Sports Confederation. When the number of athletes increases, so does the background organization of the team.

CEO of the Sports Association Harry Aalton according to it is still difficult to say how much, for example, the World Championships in Oregon went over budgeted, as more detailed budgets will only be made later.

– We are suddenly talking about sums worth more than 100,000 euros, and in this case I do not mean an excess. We will then pull these together when the competition season is over, says Aalto.

Travel costs the most in competitive trips, because even if flights are ordered in advance, as the number of teams increases, last-minute bookings increase costs. President of the Sports Association Sami Itani however, warmly welcomes Finland’s big EC team.

– We are in a lucky situation. Although the world’s political situation is really bad and it affects the finances of some federations a lot, the Sports Confederation’s finances are still in a very strong condition at the moment. We send everyone who has earned their place in the team, Itani states.

In Munich, Finland has several potential medal candidates. Salonen does not want to tell the team a medal goal. Itani, on the other hand, has stated that he will leave the position of chairman of the Sports Association if there is no medal or success.

– At the Tokyo Olympics and the World Championships in Oregon, we had good rankings compared to the Europeans. Now, of course, there is a new competition. As a team, we don’t really set any medal goals. However, we have several athletes who have a medal in mind, says Salonen.

– In terms of the overall assessment, the top 8 rankings, i.e. the famous scorers, are one measure. Many athletes have a chance for that ranking. The team will get its final shape on Monday, after which we will take a closer look at our outlook for the European Championships.

Itani allows the operative management to set an official medal goal if they wish, but he himself strongly believes that Finland will return to the medal base at the European Championships. In the previous European Championships, in Berlin in 2018, Finland was left without a medal for the first time in 52 years.

– We have potential for success in many groups. I don’t want to put pressure on the neck of any individual athlete, but I believe that success can come on a really broad front, says Itani.