Tero Seppälä is not part of the soon-to-be-named biathlon A national team. Head coach Erik Bartlett Kulstad requires 100% presence in national team activities from all selected players.
When the Ampuhaihtoliitto will soon announce its national team lineup for next season, one name will be conspicuous by its absence: the undisputed number one name in Finnish men’s biathlon Tero Blacksmith27.
In the background is the Norwegian head coach who is currently on paternity leave By Erik Bartlett Kulstad blunt alignment. In the future, those selected for the A national team activities are required to put 100 percent into the national team activities.
Notes from the head coach
It means, for example, going through the entire planned camp program according to the notes drawn by the head coach, not the personal trainers of the athletes.
Seppälä’s absence from the strength of the A national team was confirmed to Urheilu on Friday by a member of the biathlon team’s inner circle.
Last spring, Seppälä still accepted a place in the A national team, but spent the spring, summer and autumn mainly training with his personal coach, a Russian Anatoly Hovantsev with in Kontiolahti.
Didn’t like it
Also in the camps, Seppälä wanted to follow the training programs written by Hovantsev, which did not please the Norwegian, who started as head coach after the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games.
Seppälä and Kulstad were unsuccessfully contacted on Friday to comment on the situation.
The same type of liberties were taken last training season by the one who quit this spring Mari Eder. With him, Kulstad was more patient, because Eder was generally reluctant to continue his entire career until the end of summer 2022 and he lived and lives in Austria.
Chairman of the Biathlon Union Kalle Lähdesmäki stated on Friday that Seppälä’s game in terms of next season’s international competition activities has of course not been played.
– He will be required to show such displays in the events arranged as inspection races at the end of the year that Erik (head coach Kulstad) will select him for the World Cup lineup. Tero and Erik are not in a conflict situation with each other, but have discussed this matter in mutual understanding. Erik has the union’s support for his own line, said Lähdesmäki, who negotiated with Norwegian Finland.
Last season, Seppälä finished 29th in the overall World Cup competition as the best Finnish man, and finished in the top 10 three times in the season’s competitions.
However, the result was a big disappointment for the second-generation top biathlon skier, as the previous season’s overall ranking was no less than 12th.
The season included, among other things, placing in the top ten at the Beijing Olympic Games and one fifth and one sixth place in the World Cup.