Comment: Iivo Niskanen showed that the biggest goal of the season lives strong – this detail confuses | Sport

Iivo Niskanen’s preparation for Saturday’s competition was so ragged that the end result was at least encouraging. The dream of winning Holmenkollen lives on, writes Pekka Holopainen.

The truth must not have been as blunt as it seems Iivo Niskanen on Friday, Urheilulle scored, but the three-time Olympic champion didn’t get any optimal starts for the Oberhof World Cup after more than a month’s competition break.

Friday’s sprint certainly opened up oxygen uptake and metabolism after being sick and recovering, but yes, Niskanen already in Kuopio had received some kind of positive signal about the state of his performance – otherwise he would not have been seen in Oberhof. On the ski mat, at least the oxygen intake was a bit strained.

Brave companies

The 11th place in the 20 km mass start on Saturday was, however, a hard performance compared to the starting points, and the brave attempts to break up the crowd on the way deserve a special hat-off.

In this state of alertness and with a bad sense of competition, it didn’t quite work out even with a great pair of skis. If a couple more workers had been found, Niskanen’s ranking would have been better, but the podium would have been quite a utopia on Saturday.

Last season, too, Niskas had a long break before the similar start of the same type of skiing in Les Rousses, France. Then the end result was second place with absolutely brilliant skiing, with which the big but unfulfilled expectations for the World Championships in Planica were charged.

Couldn’t pedal

The pick-up came now at the fork of the last climb, when Niskanen simply couldn’t pedal anymore. In his normal mood, he flies up to such a dork.

The main goals of this prestigious season were the Tour de Ski and, of course, the 50-kilometer victory in Oslo’s Holmenkollen, the last things on the so-called “bucket list” of Niskasen’s career.

After Saturday, we know that that goal is still going strong.

Niskanen was by far the most interesting Finnish skier this weekend, but on Saturday, due to his big slip in the last half kilometer, he watched both Perttu I like it (6:s) that Cross mat Hakolan (9:s) back.

Adding to this, Niskanen, who was already ill in Trondheim on December 17, beat him by 0.8 seconds in the 10 kilometer (p) race Markus Vuorelawe get an interesting quiz question from the period of modern cross-country skiing history.

In which season did Iivo Niskanen lose to three different Finnish skiers in the traditional skiing competitions?

Urheilu follows Urheilustudio’s weekend in this article. Women’s 20 km joint start on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.