Jasmi Joensuu’s very likely Sprint Cup victory reveals that the essential thing, or winning, has lost, writes Roope Visuri of Sports.
Roope Visur Sports Editor
Jasmmi Joensuu Probably this week will probably make Finnish ski history. He is very close to winning the Sprint Cup in the Country Skiing World Cup. The only previous Finnish Sprint Cup winner is Virpi Kuitunen From 2006 to 2007.
Joensuu will be able to win the sprinting cup with even one prize -podium, for example, would be enough for him to be 22 in the final results of both the remaining World Cup sprints.
Only the first two times in the 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 seasons have been won in the Sprint Cup in just as special ways, with only one of the actual sprints during the World Cup season.
Joensuu himself has talked about the importance of the sprint cup so that it tells a lot about the basic level and how he can make hard results. This is the case now in Joensuu’s personal level.
28-year-old Joensuu ski through his life. However, this hard result is not comparable to the level of previous sprinting winners when comparing the podium of the prize.
Even if Joensuu is in the two remaining World Cup sprint in Tallinn and Lahti on a prize podium, it would still be the weakest of the Sprint Cup winners after special versions of 1996-1997 and 1997-1998.
Winning a ducking score system
So how on earth is it possible to win the sprint cup with only one prize -podium? Now we are competing with a third -time scoring system, where the top 50 receives the World Cup points instead of the top 30.
The system, which started in the 2022-2023 season, also rewards that the race as much as possible. The value of winnings and prize moneyers has been reduced, with relatively more points from other top positions.
Good examples are the Swedish sprint stars celebrating more profits this season. World champion Jonna Sundling has competed in five World Cup sprints this season and won three times. With the old score system, Sundling would lead the sprint cup before the last two races. Once won and also three times in the podium Hut Dahlqvist You would also breathe in the neck of Joensuu.
Of course, Joensuu would also be strong with the old score system, as Sundling has to skip the Tallinn World Cup sprint due to coldness. At the time of writing, Sundling’s race in Lahti is uncertain.
In general, the Joensuu bag has been played by the fact that the top names of recent sprints have either missed a large number of World Cup races for health reasons or because of preparation for value races.
In the previous two seasons, only five of the 24 athletes who have reached the top 20 in the Sprint Cup in the top 20 have toured all races in addition to Joensuu: Jessie Diggins, Lena Quintin, Laura Gimmler, Katerina Janatova and Victoria Carl. That is, only a quarter of the world’s toughest sprinters in recent years have toured all the World Cup, like Joensuu this season, and all of them are not any sprint scams.
From this season’s sprint World Championship medalists in addition to world champion Sundling, silver medalist Kristine Ståvas Skistad has competed sparingly. However, the Norwegian Salo’s current World Cup season is tough in its four sprints: one victory, one second place and one third place.
Bronze medalist Nadine fähndrich Has competed in all except December in the second sprint of the World Cup season in Lillehammer. If the Swiss had not had to leave Because of the flu That one race, he would be closer to Joensuu.
However, in relation to Fähndrich, Joensuu has succeeded in another rule change. For the season 2021-2022, the top ten points have received points for sprint qualifiers.
This season, Joensuu has ripped off to Fähndrich just as much as 73 points before the Tallinn sprint, while the total difference is 157 points. However, in this duplex, Joensuu has been strong when it comes to the torque of this season’s sprint.
In summary: the races are always solved among those who are on the starting line. The competitions also follow the rules created. Joensuu has, of course, earned his victory celebration this week.
Still, it is now a lot to win the sprinting cup, who will stay healthy, and especially this season, who will be able to rush to the World Cup race weekends as much as possible, despite the value races.
Of course, staying healthy is important in all top sports, as in skiing. However, almost as essential, if not more important, is to win. Now this system is not rewarded well enough in the World Cup.