Badminton player Kalle Koljose had no chance against the world champion. He finally had to give up due to a calf injury that occurred earlier in training.
Mika Halonen,
Janne Karinkanta
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here. You can find the entire program of the games here.
Finland’s badminton representative Kalle Koljonen the second group match at the Paris Olympics became a real pancake.
Three players play in each initial group, the winners of which advance to the next round. Koljonen had a dominant win over Mauritius in their opening match By Georges Julien Paul (21–9, 21–10).
Now it was known that there was a fierce challenge ahead. 30-year-old Koljonen faced a 23-year-old Thai star Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who is the reigning world champion and ranked eighth in the world. Koljonen’s ranking is 60.
Also at the previous Olympics, in Tokyo 2021, Koljonen’s luck was fierce when he faced the Dane by Viktor Axelsenwho eventually celebrated Olympic gold.
Now a model opening match had raised Koljonen’s hopes for a surprise. He has said that the physique and condition are at a completely different level than in the previous Olympic Games.
“Tragic mood”
Against Vitidsarni, realism came quickly. The Thai took the opening set 21–4. At no point was Koljonen able to challenge the world champion.
Koljonen gave up in the second set at 0–8. He seemed to keep his leg on the field. Koljonen’s career in Paris ended, Vitidsarn continued as group winner to the top 16.
– I didn’t get anything from this match. The first game was settled, it had to be settled. This is where the pick-up came in, summed up an expert at ‘s commentary Ville Lång.
Koljonen’s mood in the interview after the match was mixed. The man didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. Mostly he was flirting.
Kalle Koljonen, what happened?
– Well, if you followed, I had to withdraw from this. Skate the game and skate the leg. You can’t beat a world champion like that on one leg.
– There is really nothing else to say here. The atmosphere is pretty skeida, now I went this way. It’s hard to smile, a little tragic mood at the moment.
What’s wrong with your leg?
– Five or six days ago, someone caught his calf during one of the training sessions. It completely shut down. It has been given artificial respiration the whole time, with painkillers and tried in every way to get it in shape. It lasted just fine for one match.
– Then it catches up all the time… When this sport of ours is quite winless. Then when it’s locked a bit all the time and you press with 50% force, it’s not right… You can’t win here with just your hand.
“You can’t stop like this”
At what point did you start to get the feeling that nothing will come of this now?
– Just warming up. I tried to keep my head inside, that maybe it’s this, when it gets warm and the adrenaline starts. Every time I bounced, caught. It caught in the same way in the previous game, but it still obeyed.
However, you continued after the first round. What were you talking about during that little break?
– We just talked about what should be done about it. You should get more speed on the field and play more versatile, but when you can’t do all the things you want to do. It’s hard to give up in such rough situations. It wouldn’t have made any sense to continue.
Second Olympics taken care of now. How will Kalle Koljonen’s journey continue?
– Yes, I will continue one more Olympics. Nothing else. Like Matti Mattsson too said, you can’t stop at this kind of performance. You simply can’t. This is a rough, rough performance.