Arttu Heikkinen, 18, won bronze at the Junior World Championships. In the previous race, the lungs of the Finnish promise did not work at all.
15:16•Updated 15:18
18-year-old biathlon permit Arttu Heikkinen achieved a great performance on Sunday, when he won bronze in the pursuit race of the under-19 series of the Junior World Championships. Born in 2004, the Finn won the World Championship gold in the same series last year.
The games held in Kazakhstan had previously gone poorly for Heikkinen.
– This was a work win. The beginning of the season went really well and the condition was very good.
However, the past month has been really difficult for Heikkinen. He has been sick a lot.
– I’ve been in a lot of pain and my energy level has dropped really low. There have been really difficult competitions.
Heikkinen and his coach tried a small risk.
– The preparation went completely wrong during January and February. I couldn’t practice. Even a small mistake was made when trying to risk training while sick. The situation when I came here was pretty weak.
With a reasonable bet for medals
Heikkinen describes his going on the closing day of the Games as reasonable. Heikkinen had four penalty rounds, but was able to fight on the track.
Heikkinen’s clear strength is his skiing speed. Challenging premises made it difficult.
– The lungs don’t work and oxygen doesn’t go to the muscles. There were a lot of problems with the lungs in the sprint race. However, it was possible to find some kind of state of alertness for the last race.
He took a different approach to the pursuit race
– I did a different warm-up than usual. I was able to start the competition surprisingly stress-free. I didn’t expect anything from myself anymore. I knew there was a good chance of making a profit if everything worked out.
– There were a few fines, but the skiing started going well. I was able to ski a few lap times. I was at top speed on skis. It made that possible.
According to the current plan, Heikkinen plans to compete in the junior championships at the end of the season.
– You have to find out what’s wrong with the man, when everything is by no means okay. You have to think about whether it makes sense to compete anymore or whether the season is over.