The European steeplechase champion has a huge amount of lubricants in his garage.
Joel Sippola,
Petra Manner
Jukka Keskisalo is remembered in Finland for his sensational 3,000-meter European championship in Gothenburg 2006. After his sports career, he has done, among other things, coaching jobs.
The competitive Keskisalo is now a passionate ski oiler. In the background is the daughter’s skiing hobby.
Keskisalo, who lives in Joensuu, has a huge amount of ski cream in his garage.
– Skiing is a great sport. Even the child enjoys it. The amount of father’s love correlates somewhat with the ski’s glide and grip, says Keskisalo.
Keskisalo admits that he indulged in lubricating his skis. He has a patterning device.
– We try to get equal starting points, so that at least we don’t get caught, Keskisalo refers to the equipment.
The Finnish biathlon team has had an impact for a good week in Kontiolahti, where the opening competitions of the World Cup season take place. Keskisalo challenged the competitors of the Finnish biathlon team to a playful greasing contest.
Keskisalo agreed to the interview on the condition that he gets to compete. The European steeplechase champion doesn’t really care about interviews.
– I haven’t been able to be in Kontiolahti for two weeks, when it has been closed. The maintenance forces have a clear advantage. They have the home field advantage, even though we are here, Keskisalo threw.
Explanations
Urheilu’s biathlon expert acted as the tester in the oil competition Ville Kotikumpu. He tested the functionality of skis lubricated by both the Finnish guardian and Jukka Keskisalo.
– I skied and counted in both. I compared the glide distance in landing. Both were counted twice. The second one was better both times.
In Kotikumpu’s opinion, that ski took the win.
– It had a hand pattern on the bottom. I think that decided the victory of this race.
The ski in question was lubricated by Finnish maintenance. The loser was therefore Keskisalo.
The test was done on Friday before the men’s sprint race. Keskisalo had the explanations ready.
– The loss was narrow. The test protocol is bad, because there was 800 meters of skiing. When there is a roughly rough texture on the bottom, I guess it starts to collect a little dirt from the rest of the way and freezes a little, Keskisalo threw the receipt to Finland’s maintenance.
Finland’s maintenance was also successful on Saturday, when Suvi Minkkinen was third and reached the top three in the World Cup for the first time in his career.