Over the weekend, Amanda Kotaja was just one hundredth of the way from the women’s 100m wheelchair medley ME time. The background of the 28-year-old Finn’s development is a significant change.
Wheelchair winder Amanda Kotaja broke the European record 15.36 in the women’s 100 meters at the Swiss GP on Saturday. He improved his eight-year-old record by 26 hundredths.
28-year-old Kotaja was also close to another hard bang. He missed the world record in the sport by only one hundredth of a second.
– It’s hard to believe that the bet was as hard as it was, Kotaja says to Urheilu.
Kotaja has kept the world record time unbeaten.
– The hurt lasted only a hundredth of that. I never thought I could reel this hard. The fact that I got that close is a really big deal for me.
– In the future, there is the potential to break a record that I thought was impossible before, Kotaja says.
To Paris as the defending world champion
Kotaja says that he has been in record shape already in the last two years. However, now the pieces have fallen into place.
The athlete has had big changes in the spring. He has been coached by a Dutchman since February Arno Mulin.
With the Dutch technology guru, a big change has been made to the winding position.
– I sit really much lower in the winding chair. This way, there are many more opportunities to move the chair forward. Technology has improved tremendously. Technology and physics, which have been built up over the years, can now be better utilized in rewinding.
The changes have produced results very quickly.
– I am so happy that I was able to make a performance that exceeds all expectations in my career. It’s exciting to see what kind of rewinds you can make in the future. When we can do a whole training season together with Arno starting in the fall, I think I’ll be able to roll harder.
Kotaja’s main goal this summer is the World Championships in Paris. He goes to the Games as the defending champion.
– The last two weeks have shown that I can’t go there to get any other goal. I’m also going to swim 400 meters at the World Championships. It looks very positive, so I’m going to aim for a place in the finals.