The beginning of the season for the Finnish cross-country skiers was tight in the first two World Cup weekends as a whole, although Iivo Niskanen got second place in Ruka.
At the weekend in Östersund, there were signs that positive things are bubbling behind Finland’s top skiers. Sprinter Tiia Olkkonen reached the semi-finals for the first time in his career, being 11th.
In the free time start races skied on Sunday Remi Lindholm was responsible for his best World Cup place (10th). Eveliina Piippo on the other hand, opened his competition season with promising results (16th), leaving Sweden’s star skiers behind Frida Karlsson and Moa Ilarin.
– Tiia rose to a completely different level again. Remi Lindholm has been in the headlines for many things in recent years, but he is now skiing at a good level.
– “Eve”, on the other hand, skied in her season opening very much at the same level as in her good skis last season. Even then he said this was not enough. However, now he was able to open at this level, so you can expect even better skis from him over the course of the season, Urheilu’s expert Kalle Lassila says.
According to Lassila, Suomen Ikköstykit Ivo and Kerttu Niskanen showed signs of being in good shape for the Tour de Ski at the turn of the year. Especially in the traditional sprint, they showed their sharp focus.
– The whole looks pretty good again. Even the previous weekend, it seemed like the ashes were on and towards the next season, Lassila says.
Who surprised?
One of the biggest surprises of the weekend was the complete collapse of the Swedish women in the ten kilometer free split start.
Ebba Andersson was only ninth as the best Swede. The difference between Ilar and Karlsson at the top was huge. Lassila sees that the widespread failure of the Swedes was largely down to the equipment.
In Finnish terms, the most positive surprise of the winter sports weekend was the men’s biathlon relay team in Hochfilzen, Austria. In the end, the ranking was 11th, but considering the starting points, the performance of the young team was definitely on the positive side.
The team was missing the top names of the team in recent years Tero Seppälä, Olli Hiidensalo and Tuomas Harjula. Despite this, Finland was no less than fifth in the middle of the relay.
The guarantee men of Räväkä’s relay start had shot wonderfully throughout the weekend Jaakko Ranta and who celebrated his birthday at the weekend Otto Invenius.
Thanks to Ranta’s fine vertical shooting, Finland was even third for a while at the end of the opening section. The surprise title of the weekend goes to 26-year-old Ranta, who took his best World Cup ranking (36th) on Saturday.
– Jaako’s shooting was absolutely brilliant all weekend. Skiing was better in the relay, which was helped by good maintenance. It is possible that Jaakko will soon be in the top 30, Urheilu’s biathlon expert Ville Kotikumpu sees
The Finnish men’s relay performance promises to be better when all the best are there.
– Coaching even has room to play. You can post the ones that are in the best condition. This season, Finland can still get a really great place in the relay, hopefully at the World Championships, Kotikumpu refers to the prestigious competitions held in Nova Mesto.
Who flopped?
The Norwegian men were responsible for the biggest disappointment of last weekend, who were responsible for the superiority that watered down interest in both cross-country skiing and biathlon.
In the men’s 10 km free time trial race, Norway took a four-way victory. There were six skiers from the country among the top seven.
The biathlon pursuit race also ended with a quadruple victory for the Norwegian men. In the relay, Norway beat the French side and third-placed Germany by more than a minute.
Kalle Lassila is frustrated by the dominance of Norwegian skiers.
– Norwegian superiority is always a big disappointment. There is a collective hope that the work of the other teams will begin to bear fruit.
What the hell?
A Slovenian was responsible for the most special case of the weekend Jakov Fak. The two-time biathlon world champion failed completely in the first shooting position of the second part of the relay.
Known as a reliable shooter, Fak missed the target every time and rarely had five penalty rounds. Even three spare cartridges did not help.
Kotikumpu and Urheilu’s commentator Johannes Oikarinen wondered about Fak’s actions.
– However, Fak is an experienced athlete. He doesn’t know what to do. What the hell, where is he shooting, Oikarinen was amazed.
After the race, Kotikumpu did not know the exact reason for Faki’s difficulties.
– However, it is about such an experienced athlete. It seems to me that the gun has bumped somewhere in the mount, which is why the sight has moved. If it moves 2-3 centimeters, the athlete can’t do anything. After all, it is special to try eight times and not hit the board.
What next?
Cross-country skiers have a particularly important competition event this weekend, when the preliminaries will be skied on the 2025 World Cup stage in Trondheim.
Free sprints, combined skiing and traditional intermediate start races are held there. The latter type of competition suits Niskas perfectly.
– Iivo and Kerttu are the spearheads. A traditional normal trip with an intermediate start is one where both fight for the win if everything works out. The free sprint is interesting, but the expectations are not high, Lassila estimates.
The Biathlon World Cup will be held next weekend in Lenzerheiden, Switzerland.
– Finns don’t have huge expectations for next weekend. But when we return from the Christmas break in January and everyone returns to the lineup, I expect that the level will rise from the beginning of the season, Kotikumpu is confident.