Eveliina Määttänen continued her confident and steady 800-meter runs in Italy’s Rovereto, where she finished fifth with a time of 2:00.18.
The competition was already at a tough level beforehand, as all the runners had a statistical time of less than two minutes, and no less than five of them had a 1.58 level.
The top two in Rovereto’s race were from Kenya Nelly Chepchirchir and the United States Sage Hurta Klecker with their own records of 1.57.74 and 1.58.33. Also in third place is Benin Noelie Yarigo pressed under 1.59 with a time of 1.58.94.
The 400 meter Intermediate time for the pacesetter was 57.8, and Eveliina Määttänen was recorded for about 58.5.
In an even crowd, Määttänen had to run the whole way in the middle of the traffic jam in the rear groups, where the pace was quite uneven. He was only able to improve his positions at the end of the straight.
– The sadness remained. I started too cautiously and fell behind the pack and in the bag. The pace was also a bit too slow and you had to be careful about jostling in traffic. The end went well, however, and I was able to move up five notches in the final stretch, Määttänen said in the Sports Association’s press release.