A harsh fate for Lauri Vuoris as the only Finn on the opening leg of the World Ski Championships – even the race organizers’ shocking solution didn’t help

Lauri Vuorinen was 32nd and missed the sprint heats of the World Ski Championships. According to Vuorinen, the illness before the World Championships was visible on the slopes of Planica.

Lauri Vuorinen was the only Finn left out of the heats of the World Championships in Planica. Vuorinen reached the 32nd place in the qualifying round, while the top 30 go on to the next round.

– This is definitely disappointing, even though there is sickness in the background. Lauri Vuorinen’s basic level is among the top 30 in the World Cup competition, and there the level is even wider, because there are not the same country quotas for four skiers, Urheilu’s expert Kalle Lassila said.

Vuorinen was still tenth in the traditional sprint in Les Roussess, France, in the World Cup general. This season, he had been in the sprints of the World Cup every time in the heats before the World Championships, except in the Lillehammer race, where he skied on freestyle.

In addition to Les Rousses, Vuorinen reached the semi-finals in early December in Beitostölen.

Vuorinen described to Urheilu that he couldn’t get anything out of his body on Thursday in Planica. He got sick at the beginning of February during the World Cup weekend in Toblach with the flu.

– I had a fever for five days. I knew I was going to be in a tight spot, would I have time to get in some sort of mood. Every day has taken my fitness forward, but now it’s the World Cup. The track was extremely heavy. It didn’t serve itself at all. In faster weather, I could have slipped further, but the momentum just wasn’t enough to make this better, Vuorinen said.

The track was salted because of the soft track in the morning, but according to the Finnish skiers, it had no effect.

– The track was still wet, soft and slow. It was the heaviest possible, Vuorinen stated.

According to Lassila, getting out of shape and losing fitness can be attributed to illness.

– Vuorinen still had a little time to train for the games after his illness. Then you have to have faith, but this qualification was not a surprise, Lassila stated.

Salting the tracks has no effect

The salting of the tracks became the first topic of conversation at the Games. Although the decision was made on a fast schedule, the salting had no effect. Salting should freeze the surface of the snow. There should be ice in it. However, this did not happen now.

– The track is bumpy, even though it was salted. It’s not hard. The road is heavy. You have to distribute the forces correctly, Finnish women’s coach Jussi Piirainen said.

The reason behind the salting was that the sun shining brightly during the day in Planica has softened the slopes.

– There was no salting in the previous days, but it has been added quite a bit now. Can’t compare to Oberstdorf salting, for example, maintenance manager Mika Venäläinen told.

For example, an expert from Norway’s TV2 Petter Northug pointed out that in Oberstdof there are experts in salting, while in Planica they are not used to it.

– Calibration can go completely wrong, skiing legend Northug was afraid.

The batch phase starts at 15:30. You can find everything about World Cup skiing on Urheilu’s competition page here.