Finland has won EC bronze in the orienteering sprint relay. This is Finland’s first medal in the sprint relay.
Finland was third in the orienteering sprint relay held in Soave, Italy. The sprint relay is contested by mixed teams so that the women run the opening and closing legs, the men the second and third legs. The Finnish team competed in formation Inka Nurminen, Teemu Oksanen, Tuomas Heikkilä and Venla Harju.
Sweden was the early favorite in the sprint relay and was ultimately superior in the race. Switzerland was 36.1 seconds behind the runner-up. Ruoti has four consecutive World Championship golds in the relay, but the European Championship gold was the team’s first. Venla Harju anchored the team to the finish 53.4 seconds after Sweden. They competed in the Swedish champion team Tove Alexandersson, Jonatan Gustafsson, Martin Regborn and Sara Hagström.
Nurminen opened Finland’s message. Sweden’s Alexandersson and Switzerland’s Simona Aebersold ran away as expected in the opening leg, but Nurminen stayed well behind the top five and in the medal fight. Oksanen took Finland to third place in his leg, and Heikkilä, who already won bronze in the individual sprint race, also used Finland for silver before the anchor leg.
Venla Harju, the most experienced orienteer of the Finnish foursome, succeeded in his part and brought the team to a historic medal. Swiss anchor Elena Roos passed Harju right from the start and brought his team to silver. Norway was left in fourth place this time.
Finland had previously reached the best fourth place on the road, at the 2016 European Championships in the Czech Republic.
– This is not a hugely experienced team, but new sprint talents who have achieved successful overall performances. Everyone made good choices, we didn’t see any mistakes on the way, Urheilu’s expert Mårten Boström praised.
– These men and women did what Finns have not been able to do before.
Boström, who himself once won sprint World Cup gold and European Championship bronze, reminded that the stakes in countries in the European Championship are not necessarily as high as in the World Championship, but the top countries are still the same.
– This is a young team, so they have everything they need to continue to see the same kind of success as now, Boström said.
In the previous ten years, Finns have not been more successful in sprint competitions. Now two bronze medals have already been won from these European Championships, while there is still a knock out competition on the program on Sunday.
– We have a new generation that doesn’t bow down to pictures. They improve day by day and grow up to become master orienteers. Now we saw the first demonstration that these are not afraid of anyone. Finnish sprint orienteering has returned to the top.
Update at 19:09: Added Mårten Boström’s comments and a video of Finland’s finish.
Correction at 19:16: Corrected the differences between the Swedish, Swiss and Finnish teams.