Iivo Niskanen communicates that it is a precautionary measure. Urheilu’s expert would be worried about the situation towards the World Cup if it was anyone other than Iivo Niskanen.
Roope Visuri,
Laura Arffman
15:43•Updated 16:23
The number one name in Finnish skiing Iivo Niskanen to skip the Tampere WC skiing held on the weekend.
Niskanen tells Urheilu that it is a precautionary measure. Niskanen definitely wants to be fit for the World Cup competitions in France at the end of January.
At the Tampere WC, there will be a pair sprint on Friday, 15 kilometers on Saturday as a traditional skiing intermediate start, and a sprint on Sunday.
On January 29, Les Rousses will be skiing the last World Cup competition in traditional skiing before the World Cup skiing in Planica at the turn of February-March.
The program for the weekend in France includes 20 kilometers as a traditional cross-country skiing race. In addition, the program includes a sprint in traditional skiing and a 10 km time trial race in free skiing.
Niskanen returned from a long competition break at the turn of the year with the Tour de Ski tour. He stopped the tour in the third race in Oberstdorf in the ten kilometer time trial.
Niskanen fell ill with the corona virus in November before the opening of the World Cup in Ruka.
The expert is not worried about the World Cup
Sports expert Kalle Lassila was not very surprised by Niskanen’s decision to skip the SC skiing. Lassila herself has thought about what top skiers get, seek and need from the World Championships.
– In the case of Iivo, it’s a lot about the fact that he needs to get the best possible exercises with as much certainty as possible. Such SC competitions can also serve as such towards bigger competitions, Lassila states.
Lassila considers the solution reasonable if Niskanen has experienced any uncertainty about it.
– After all, it must also be admitted that in recent days there has been a lot of discussion about tracks and terrains in connection with SC skiing. In terms of competition, however, there is not as hard an informative measure in the SC skiing as in the international competitions, Lassila continues, referring to the award of the SC skiing.
According to Lassila, the withdrawal solution also fits quite well into the big picture, which Niskanen and his coach Olli Ohtonen have built over the years. The expert is not worried about Niskanen’s situation towards the World Championships.
– If you were to think of any other Finnish skier, the situation would be particularly worrying. Iivo has shown so many times in his career that he is able to come from long breaks to top speed. Such competition plans have also been very typical for Iivo. I am not worried if Iivo is healthy, and there are no factors preventing good and high-quality training in the background, states Lassila.
The live broadcast of the pairs sprints of the Tampere Ski Championships starts on Friday at 13:45 on TV2 and on Puhee at 13:55.
Updated at 16:21. Added Kalle Lassila’s comments.