Eero Hirvonen had to spin his head after the peak day – wondered at Ruka’s hill tower: “Quite a flash”

Eero Hirvonen was disappointed in Ruka after Friday’s fifth place. The chances of success already melted in ski jumping.

Eero Hirvonen kicked off the new combined World Cup season on Friday. On the hill, he made one of his best competitive performances in years. There was a tactical error on the ski slope in the last descent, but Hirvonen was still fifth.

The Finn had not been seen in a winning battle for a long time, so Friday could be described as a top day.

Saturday, however, went downhill right away.

Hirvonen jumped to 140.5 meters on Friday, but on Saturday the jump came down to 110 meters. The ranking was 34th and the gap to the top was almost five minutes.

Hirvonen was already shaking his head as he went to the starting gate. Just before Hirvo, at the request of the coaches, the starting platform was lowered by one notch For Johannes Lamparter. The jury decided to keep the boom the same for Hirvonen.

– It was not really known where the starting platform should be placed. I can’t say if that was affected. Quite a flash. I don’t know exactly what they did there, Hirvonen wondered about the officials.

Hirvonen was the fastest on the ski track. In the end, the ranking was 19th.

On Friday, Hirvonen had regretted that he could have skied harder. For family reasons, he had traveled to Jyväskylä to visit and from there back to Ruka just before Friday’s race. That’s why the striker was not confident in his striking ability.

On Saturday, I had faith in my own doing.

– I dared to go hard from the beginning. There was pent-up aggression after yesterday, Hirvonen said and told that there was a little more rage on the track now.

– Now skiing was what it should be.

Herola: “It didn’t feel normal”

On Ilkka Herola was stickier. He was 23rd at the finish, half a minute behind Hirvos, although he was slightly better than the other Finnish star on the hill. Herola started on the track 20 seconds before Hirvo.

– It didn’t feel quite normal going now. I don’t know if I was torn so deep yesterday that I didn’t have time to recover. Yesterday, it hurt my lungs when it was cold and violently drafty. Today I didn’t get anything out of it, Herola said and pointed to how he made a hard climb on the ski section to tenth place on Friday.

On Sunday, the Ruka World Cup opening weekend ends with the joint start race. That is, first we ski ten kilometers and then we jump from suurmäki.

– Tomorrow doesn’t matter, as long as it remains intact. The matter will be resolved on the hill. It’s the same as going on a ski trip, Herola stated succinctly.

The reason is the track in Ruka. It’s hard to tear apart and break up the group. Hirvonen wondered if there were any suitors.

– With this feeling, I’m not pulling. I’ll settle for peeing. If someone has the passion, they can try, Herola described.