Reetta Hurske, Lotta Harala and Annimari Korte all started their reigns with their own records. The decline of women’s fast fences last summer can be forgotten, writes Urheilu’s Joska Saarinen.
17:51•Updated 17:54
Last summer, the domestic women’s speed hurdle competition left a strong taste. Hundred-meter hurdles has been a sport for several years, where the competition between Finns is at its fiercest.
At best, the situation had been that there was fierce competition for European Championship spots in the domestic competitions. There were four tough women, sometimes five, when there were only three places in the competition.
In the summer of 2022, the winner of the competition between Finns was already known in advance. It was Reetta Hurske.
Nooralotta Neziri, Annimari Korte and Lotta Harala were either far from their best condition or completely out of the game due to injuries.
Age is just a number, but each of the three mentioned above is over 30 years old. At that age, rehabilitating an athlete back to top level after injuries is always a mystery.
As far as Harala and Neziri are concerned, the summer of 2021 had also gone by the wayside.
All of this raised the question of whether the golden age of the 100-meter hurdles, which lasted for a few years as Finns’ favorite sport, is coming to an end.
Everything else.
Hallikausi 2023 has started in a mind-blowing way.
In her opening competition of the season on Saturday, Reetta Hurske ran a new Finnish record of 7.90 in the 60-meter hurdles.
According to Hurskee, the competition in Tampere was a training competition in his mind, and the actual opening of the season is at the end of January in Germany.
It will be interesting to see what Hurske is capable of when the indoor season actually starts.
He has a realistic chance to turn the bitter fourth place of the 2019 EC Indoor Games into a medal when the European championships are fought in Istanbul at the beginning of March.
An incredible comeback race at Harala
Hurske deservedly took the headlines on Saturday, but there was something else interesting behind the top.
After a break of two and a half years, Lotta Harala returned to the racing fields in a great way.
Harala, who was on the sidelines due to a doping violation suspension and injuries, set a record of 8.12 in the 60-meter hurdles in Tampere.
It’s a really tough trick to improve your record by five hundredths after such a long break from competition. Harala’s previous record of 8.17 was from winter 2018.
Like Harala to Instagram wrote (you will switch to another service)he’s back.
And that’s not all.
Earlier this week, Annimari Korte ran her record 8.06 in the opening race of the season in Lahti.
Nooralotta Neziri, who is recuperating from an injury, leaves this information for the hall season. The successful comeback races of Harala and Kortte show that Neziri should not be written out of the plans for summer 2023 either.
If the four remain healthy, there will be a new kind of excitement in next summer’s domestic GP races. Of course, Hallikau’s success in the 60-meter fences will not automatically transfer to the 100-meter fences in the summer, but the signs are good.
Before that, there will be a delicious view of the European Indoor Championships in March. Based on the opening of the season, Korte and Harala are also in top condition.
The crisis of fast fences can be forgotten.