Senni Salminen hurt her ankle in the first jump of Saturday’s qualifying.
Aino Paloniemi,
Mika Halonen,
Laura Arffman
Kaleva Games in Vaasa 27.–30.6. follows the events moment by moment in this article.
The reigning Finnish champion in the women’s triple jump at the Kaleva Games Senni Salminen miss the final race of the evening. Salminen’s coach Matti Mononen opened up about the athlete’s situation on ‘s broadcast.
– In the second jump of the first qualifying jump, the ankle was able to rotate that much and it is now that stiff. It was decided not to risk and possibly sacrifice the Olympics with it. Inevitably, the situation is not terribly bad, but as a precaution, do not jump today.
Does this have an impact with the Paris Olympics in mind?
– Well, of course, it doesn’t make it any easier when you have to do compensatory training again for a while, but there’s plenty of time here.
Salminen’s leg will be photographed tomorrow, after which it will be clear when the athlete will be able to resume normal training. According to Mononen, however, the assumption is that quite quickly.
Salminen is currently ranked 26th in the Olympic ranking, while 32 defectors make it to Paris.
Kristiina Mäkelä is still looking for a strong result and a 14-meter crossing in the Kaleva Games. He is 35th in the ranking.
Salminen’s season has been difficult. He has exceeded 14 meters once, when Paavo Nurme’s jumps reached 14.01 meters at the Games.
In the European Championships, Salminen failed to qualify with a result of 13.54. After that, Salminen felt like pulling “honest tricks”.
Salminen was especially frustrated because he feels that he is in his best physical attack for the first time since the Olympic year 2021. Then Salminen jumped a SE result of 14.63.
During the winter season, Salminen injured his leg in the SM indoor competition. He suffered a plantar injury that required him to wear a cast for two weeks.
Salminen has openly talked in public about his physical and mental trials after 2021. At the latest, Salminen came to the attention of the general public with his wonderful breakthrough.
– I had the feeling that I would be anywhere else but at the competition venue. It was just a really bad place. It felt like there was nothing funny about it. It’s like being somewhere on the plank of a pirate ship, and now you’re leaving, but at the same time you feel that the end result is not good, Salminen said last summer.
In the summer of 2023, however, Salminen returned to the ring, won the first outdoor track championship gold of his career and represented Finland at the World Championships in Budapest.