He got the best ranking of his career in the Biathlon World Cup on Sunday Suvi Minkkinen got the taste of blood in his mouth only at the finish line.
Minkkinen, 27, who crossed the finish line in 15th place at the end of the pursuit race in Kontiolahti, poked his face with a stick and arrived at ‘s interview with a piece of paper over his mouth.
– I would drag myself to the turd after the finish line. I tried to brake, but I was so pissed off that my coordination didn’t work and the stick came into the corner of my mouth. I got the taste of blood in my mouth at the latest, Minkkinen laughed.
Minkkinen, who was in the first and last place of one penalty round, increased his ranking by no less than 12 places. In the finish, the difference with the winner of the race was France To Julia Simon was a minute and 50 seconds.
Minkkinen’s strength is accurate and fast shooting, but now he also made a splash on the track. Minkkinen covered the German Olympic champion By Denise Herrmann-Wick on the final stretch.
– Miraculously, I found the strength to climb the wall at the wrong time. I think the Home Audience has a lot of influence. I don’t know when there will be a day like that, when our guy catches Denise on the wall climb and still passes at the end. It’s a cool feeling, Minkkinen was happy.
According to Minkkinen, today’s performance shows that he has developed physically. Kontiolahti’s track profile is from the toughest end of the Biathlon World Cup tour.
– A bit of a hard start yesterday and a hard start today, but you don’t feed so much acid that the race would completely slow down. The basic level has risen quite a lot, Minkkinen said.
Sports expert Kaisa Mäkäräinen raved about Minkkinen’s stretching from Joutsa and said that he expects even better from his former national teammate.
– Suvi took a hard scalp at that end. He must have surprised even himself that he was able to pin Herrmann down. It bodes well for next week, when we’ll be skiing a slightly gentler track in Hochfilzen. I think it suits Suvi even better than Kontiolahti’s track profile, Mäkäräinen said.
The new head coach of the Finnish national biathlon team Erik Barlett Kulstad Minkkinen’s success made me happy.
– It’s really wonderful to see that Suvi is fighting for good places. He beat two Germans in the last run. That’s exactly what I want to see from him, Kulstad said.
Mari Eder: “I’m better at what I’m doing than before”
The biggest names in the Finnish team were in advance Mari Eder and Tero Seppäläbut both of them had difficulties in shooting in Kontiolahti.
Eder was close to the top positions both in the normal distance and in the sprint race, but one weaker performance at the shooting range watered down the hopes of success. The fast skier finished 17th, 19th and 24th in the individual races of the week.
Eder said on Sunday that six missed shots in the chase looks like a bad result from the outside, his shooting overall is in good shape.
– There are good and bad performances in shooting. They still don’t last until the end. Let’s hope it comes. I have a feeling that I’m better at what I’m doing than before, Eder said.
In Sunday’s pursuit ski races, Eder, 35, was fifth fastest.
– The skiing condition is good and the endurance is good. Margins are small. If you have been able to squeeze ten seconds of it on the track at this age, it is a big percentage difference, Eder said.
Seppälä’s situation does not worry the head coach
Kontiolahti’s penalty ring became familiar to Tero Seppälä, and it appeared on the results list in places 35, 31 and 51.
In Sunday’s pursuit, Seppälä shot four missed shots in first place, but the next three shots went better.
– I went around the penalty ring so much this week that I’ve been training harder than the top guys. It’s been a difficult week, but it’s a small thing. Yes, it can be translated quickly, hopefully by next week, Seppälä said with confidence.
Head coach Erik Kulstad said that the problems related to Seppälä’s shooting will be resolved in training from the beginning of the week.
– I’m not worried about Tero at all, Kulstad assured.
The sixth place in the men’s relay and the seventh place in the women’s relay on Thursday were reported by an expert Ville Kotikummun according to the fact that the national team has developed under the new head coach. There were also successes on a broad front: Nastassia to Kinnuse and Suvi Minkkinen 15th places and To Olli Hiidensalo 11th place in the normal distance.
– Finland started the opening week with a good pulse. Lots of good performances by many athletes and the relays were good, so it can be said that we have moved forward as a team. It is very important when we start the next weeks, Kotikumpu estimates.
The World Cup season continues on Thursday in Hochfilzen, Austria.
Pursuit 10 km, women
1. Julia Simon 31.13 (0)
2. Dorothea Wierer (0) +11.9
3. Elvira Öberg (1) +21
4. Lisa Vitozzi (1) +26.3
5. Emma Lunder (1) +33.2
6. Caroline Colombo (0) +53.5
7. Marketa Davidova (1) +59.3
8. Vanessa Voigt (1) +1.04,6
9. Lisa Hauser (3) +1.04,7
10. Hanna Öberg (3) +1.15,7
…
15. Suvi Minkkinen (2) +1.50,7
24. Mari Eder (6) +2.45,6
48. Nastassia Kinnunen (5) +4.45,5
54. Erika Jänkä (4) +5.29,0
Pursuit 12.5 km, men
1. Johannes Thingnes Bö 32.44,4 (3)
2. Sturla Holm Lägreid +19.2 (2)
3. Emilien Jacqueline +47.3 (2)
4. Sebastian Samuelsson +1.12,7 (2)
5. Roman Rees +1.20,7 (2)
6. Jesper Nelin +1.32,0 (2)
….
27. Olli Hiidensalo +3.19.7 (4)
51. Tero Seppälä +5.00,9 (6)