A competitive performance can be considered successful when the athlete has succeeded at the most important moment of the season. This idea is valid Summer in Minkkinen and Tero Seppäläwho were responsible for the Finns’ best performance in the individual trips to the Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof.
Minkkinen was eighth in the regular race and Seppälä finished tenth in the mass start on the final day.
– Suvi and Tero had their best performance of the season, which is well on the positive side. Suvi also had her best ever performance at the World Championships. It’s a great success, Urheilu’s expert Ville Kotikumpu sees
Kotikumpu considers the prejudices of other Finns equally thick. Many athletes also had a lot of bad luck on the way.
For example, in the men’s sprint race From Tuomas Harjula everything went wrong. In the women’s message Natassia Kinnusen the section went to pieces due to a fall and the ski coming off.
Kotikumpu kept records of the Finns’ falls.
– In some games, the athletes were either close to their own level or fell short of what has been done this year. The fact that five out of ten athletes fail is a matter of bad luck or something else. With the falls, some athletes had gun trouble.
– There were positive things, but also darker aspects. However, when two athletes succeed, the overall balance can be considered a satisfactory plus.
According to Kotikumpu, the team’s rating is 7–8. He would have hoped for better message performances from the Finns. Finland was tenth in the men’s relay and 13th in the women’s race.
– If you wanted to go on the commendable side, you should have reached the same places in the messages as you did in the World Cup. The messages tell about how the team has developed. There were good starts in both relays, but they ended up in individual shooting positions where the conditions were too demanding.
– We weren’t quite ready for tight places where we could have stretched. If the men had gotten close to the sixth place and the women to the eighth place, we could have talked about a good plus.
Shocking Bö
Kotikumpu himself was waiting From Mari Eder strong performance. It was actually only achieved in Saturday’s relay, where the Finnish hero was seen shooting fast in a vertical position.
– Yes, we all expected that Eder could have even had a medal seam. However, he did not reach his goals. He himself said in the interview that the shooting was completely lost here.
From Olli Hiidensalo have seen good successes in the standing position in the World Cup. However, such performances were few and far between at the World Championships.
– The performance that he has reached in the World Cup, did not spawn here in the vertical position. I expected them to do better, Kotikumpu refers to Eder and Hiidensalo.
The World Cup season is still a few weeks away. Seppälä’s shooting style in particular bodes well for the rest of the season.
The World Cup season continues in a week and a half in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
– I believe that we can see top 10 performances from Tero there as well.
– When Suvi recovers from the stress of the competition, you can see similar shootings from her. Mari’s skiing speed has not disappeared anywhere. If the troll had fallen off his back when the World Cup was over.
The Biathlon World Championships in 2023 will be especially remembered Johannes Thingnes Bön of massive superiority. He won five golds and seven medals.
– The kind of performances he did in vertical positions and in decision-making situations was absolutely mind-boggling. The only cosmetic flaw came in the final race, where the last shot slipped past. Otherwise, a really convincing thing to do.
On the women’s side Marte Röiseland reached the historic balance of seven World Cup medals three years ago from Anterselva. He also achieved five golds.
Bö earned 110,000 euros in prize money from his World Cup career. The three individual world championships were 25,000 per race, the mass start bronze 14,000 and the relay races a total of 21,000 euros.
Norway was number one in the medal statistics with 13 medals, five of which were gold. Sweden finished second in the medal break. The balance was three golds and 11 medals.
– Sweden’s performance as a team convinced me. They start challenging Norway.
Finland’s previous World Cup medal is from 2017, when Kaisa Mäkäräinen was third in the mass race in Hochfilzen.