On Saturday, the fifth name was added to the group of Finnish women’s speed paddlers who broke under 13 seconds, when Saara Keskitalo clocked a time of 12.84 in the GP race in Joensuu.
Kamilla Rajander,
Petra Manner
The level of women’s speed fences has been high in Finland in recent years, and among other things, the recent holder of the Finnish record Lotta Harala has told how the tight competitive situation at home pushes athletes forward.
The situation also looks promising for Finland’s top three – Harala, Reetta Hurskeen and Nooralotta Nezirin – behind. On Saturday, a new name was added to the group of Finnish female fast paddlers who broke 13 seconds, when Saara Keskitalo timed 12.84 in the Joensuu GP race.
Keskitalo is the fifth Finn to achieve the feat, because in addition to the athletes mentioned above, only one who ended his career this summer Annimari Korte has run that distance in under 13 seconds.
Keskitalo’s previous record was 13.05, which he ran in Mikkeli in June. The record improvement of more than two tenths surprised the 24-year-old runner representing Espoo Tapioi.
– The fact that so many left at once was surprising. I didn’t expect this, Keskitalo commented happily in an interview with Urheilu right after his run.
The joy was further increased by the underlying health problems. In the winter, Keskitalo suffered from a hamstring injury, and after that a long-lasting fever was a problem.
– It has not been an easy year. During the summer, the trainings have looked in a better direction, but there is always a question mark, whether it will click into place in the games, Keskitalo said.
The coach saw indications of a 13-second undershoot
Keskitalo is coached Mikael Ylöstalo. Ylöstalo, who followed the competition in Joensuu as an expert at Urheilu, saw that everything started to work in the Keskitalo run right from the start, when it got a good acceleration.
– The thing about hurdles is that when there are improvements, they can be incredibly big.
Ylöstalo says that he saw indications of going under 13 seconds in his coach. Even so, he could not have expected such a good time from his coach in Joensuu on Saturday night. The coach also brings up Keskitalo’s health problems.
– It’s a pretty deep start.
According to Ylöstalo, in Keskitalo’s training sessions, after recovery, the goal was to start showing results from the end of the summer, from the Kaleva Games onward.
In the Kaleva Games, Keskitalo finished after Hurske and Harala for the SC bronze with a time of 13.41.