Eero Hirvonen bowed out in the battle for victory at Ruka – amazed his competitors: “Reasonably dangerous play”

Eero Hirvonen wondered what his competition partners were up to at the opening of the Ruka World Cup. Hirvonen even fought for the win, but fell to fifth at the end.

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Eero Hirvonen was fifth in the opening competition of the combined world cup in Ruka.

Hirvonen started the 7.5 km skiing section in third place, 12 seconds Johannes Lamparteria and 6 seconds Jarl Magnus Riiberia after. Riiber had caught Lampater after the first two kilometers. Ten athletes, including Hirvonen, had reached the battle for victory before the final count.

The Finn was in the lead before the last descent, but did not want to go down the hill first in search of a better position. However, Hirvonen did not succeed in that.

Norwegian Jens Lurås Oftebro, Jarl Magnus Riiber and Jörgen Gråbak connected to a double profit. Johannes Rydzek still managed to finish before Hirvo.

Hirvonen said in an interview with Urheilu that he was not at all satisfied with the events of the skiing competition.

– I don’t know what the guys are doing there. Nobody wants to ski at all. I thought someone wanted to go for a long climb on the last lap. The guys stopped. They first stood uphill and stood on top of the hill. No one wanted to be the first to go on the last count. It was quite dangerous to play when we went down, Hirvonen lamented.

– The organizers always leave one in the middle of the track. It is not suitable for this at all. Everyone wants to be in the middle of the lane. Can’t fit on the page. The crowd piles into it. Hohhoh, maybe tactically the worst race of my life!

Hirvonen succeeded from a difficult starting point on Saturday, as he left Ruka earlier due to a family tragedy. However, the Finn managed the second longest jump in the hill race and was third overall in the hill race. Hirvonen described after the hill section that things in the family are going in a better direction.

After the ski competition, Hirvonen thought that he should have skied the whole way at full speed.

– I wasn’t confident in my fitness. It worked better than I expected. Preparation has not been the best for this weekend. I don’t dare to set off hard, Hirvonen described.

In any case, Hirvonen’s performance was also tough overall, reflecting last years in the individual competitions. Hirvonen finished in the top four nine times between 2016 and 2018. After that, none had come. Last spring there were two fifth places, in Klingenthal and Lahti.

On Friday, Ruka competed in a new competition format in the individual compact. In that, the differences for the skiing part were determined by the rankings, not by the points available for the ski jumping performances. The differences when starting a ski race are therefore smaller than in traditional Gundersen competitions.

Ilkka Herola was the tenth.

– If there had been bangs, it would have been a good seam to challenge for wins. However, it was clear that the main thing was to survive to the finish line, said Herola, who had to be a much tighter chaser than Hirvo.

– I think the competition format is quite welcome. The order of the top is not terribly different from what it would have been in a normal race. Now it was a bit different, Herola praised the competition format.

Herola was 16th on the hill section and that was too much even in this competition format.

– After 50 seconds of Ryki, it was still quite sad at the end, Herola stated.

The head coach Antti Kuisman according to the new competition format, tactics are emphasized.

– Today I probably could have made better tactical decisions during the race, but good strong skiing in any case, Kuisma described.

– Podiums don’t come for free. This left me hungry for the rest of the week.

Kuisma highly praised Hirvo for the day’s competition performance.

– On the hill, the best jumping in years in a competitive situation. Skiing was a mystery to all of us after all the traveling. To be sure, a calm start. It’s good to move on from this. Compared to last year, we are one step ahead and in the right direction, Kuisma stated.