Finland’s star swimmer Matti Mattsson immediately signed up for the 200-meter breaststroke gold fight at the Doha World Long Course Championships with the fastest time of 2.09.15 in the entire preliminaries.
Mattsson was superior, with a difference to the second-placed Bulgarian Lyubomir Epiropov it was almost a second and a half.
The Finn, who swam in the second heat, also broke the A limit for next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris (2.09.68). Porilainen will therefore be able to defend his bronze medal at the Olympics three years ago.
Urheilu’s swimming expert Ville Kallinen was impressed by Mattsson’s swimming stroke. He doesn’t remember seeing a similar performance from a yellow Finnish swimmer in the preliminaries of the long course World Championships.
Kallinen gives a harsh comparison to Finland’s best swimmer of all time, Jani Sievisen.
– There is such a 1990s atmosphere here. The last time Sievinen has probably been this superior in a preliminary round. Hanna-Maria Seppälä was also equally convincing when he advanced from the semifinals to the finals at the 2003 Barcelona World Championships and then won the championship.
– After all, this is an exceptional and historic thing, says Kallinen.
Hard names included
It has been characteristic of Mattsson, who is in great shape, that he improves bit by bit in the competitions. In Kalline’s opinion, Finnish swimming looks much better than, for example, last year.
– Coach Eetu Karvonen confirmed that Matti is fine. My own expectations also rose significantly after this preliminary round performance, says Kallinen.
The previous Finnish long track World Cup winner was Seppälä almost 21 years ago. Among the Finns, only Sievinen and Antti Kasvio in Rome 1994.
So is Mattsson fighting for his first title race win in his career?
– If the level doesn’t explode completely and the swimmers would have only come in first gear, you can say that he is one of the winning favorites based on the heat performance.
The three-time prize competition medalist is still looking for his first prize competition victory in his career. Although the games are missing the ME men of recent years, China Qin Haiyang as well as Australia Zac Stubblety-Cook and the French superstar Leon MarchardQatar’s 200-meter breaststroke has several tough factors, however.
Among them are the Olympic silver medalist Arno Kamminga (NED), US Nic Fink as well as Sweden Erik Persson.
– Even if the world record holder is not on the line, no one will come in 2–3 years to ask who was on the line. If Mattsson wins the championship, he will always be the champion, regardless of who was on the line.
The timing of the World Championships in Qatar is a bit special for swimming since the beginning of the year, although in 2007 Michael Phelps The timed Melbourne long course World Championships were held in March.
However, the current competitive swimmers are not used to swimming value competitions this early, so proper timing is a big question mark. As far as Mattsson is concerned, however, this has been a great success.
– In the fall, Matti once again missed the short track championships and was only in the SC championships. Mati has clearly had a focus in the long track season. When you prioritize and your health is good, it is easier to schedule fitness. I also don’t see this proper timing as a problem for the Paris Olympics, because there is still half a year to go.
Paris is a bad tick for many
For many Finnish swimmers, the World Championships in Qatar are an important place to prepare for the Paris Olympics. Mattsson is so far the only Finn who has been able to break the result limit of the games.
The Finnish competitive swimming team in Paris threatens to become small. Three years ago, Finland had five representatives in the five ring games: Mattsson, Ari-Pekka Liukkonen, Ida Hulkko, Mimosa Jallow as well Fanny Teijonsalo.
Among them, Jallow has finished and Liukkonen, who won the long course European championship in the 50 meter freestyle three years ago, is like a shadow even more.
The clear challenge of Finnish swimming at the moment is to produce young new swimmers to replace the old swimmers. When it comes to the Olympic swimming team, the eye turns Tomas Kosken, Laura Lahtinen, Lunch Kasvion as well Kalle Mäkinen to such young Finnish go-getters.
– In adults, it is more difficult. Ida Hulkko is really far from the Olympic limit, Fanny Teijonsalo has some work to do regarding the limit Veera Kivirinna does not have a realistic Olympic prospect in the 100 meter breaststroke.
– There is a small glimmer of hope, but it requires really great successes from young people.