The competition committee of the Finnish Sports Association approved the 800-meter indoor SE run by Evelina Määttänen in the winter at the meeting held on Tuesday.
The competition committee of the Finnish Sports Association decided at its meeting on Tuesday that Eveliina Määttanen the result of 2:01.57 in the 800 meters run in February is accepted as the official Finnish record.
Määttänen, 28, recently heard in an interview with that the SE result of the winter season has been accepted.
– In my opinion, it sounds like a fair decision. It’s a really great thing to make it official now, Määttänen rejoiced.
– I didn’t even know that it was discussed today, he laughed.
In February, Määttänen ran in the halls of Torun, Poland, to a new SE reading of 2:01.57 for 800-meter indoor tracks. The former SE result was Sara Lappalainen (nee Kuivisto) in 2022 running 2:02.36.
However, the result was not ratified because Määttäsen had forgotten to pay the sports license required by the Finnish Sports Federation.
– I think it was such an unclear situation. I myself was aware that the license does not have to be valid in a competition outside of SUL. It did cause a little confusion, but I haven’t given it much thought, Määttänen said.
The result was accepted by unanimous decision
Competition manager of the Finnish Sports Association Mika Muukka says that Määttänen’s result was accepted as a Finnish record by the unanimous decision of the competition committee.
– We looked at our representation rules. There it reads about competitiveness and there it talks about a license, but the right of representation rule applies to competitive activities under SUL.
– Eveliina Määttänen ran this result in Poland and it is a competition under World Athletics or European Athletics, so we cannot influence it. This was the reason why we accepted the result as a Finnish record, Mika Muukka explains.
Määttänen previously admitted to that he forgot to pay the 39-euro license.
SUL’s tightening of rules was due to many unpaid licenses
The whole episode was caused by SUL’s decision last year that you cannot enter the competitions unless the license has been paid. SUL toughened its line because the athletes had so many unpaid licenses.
In domestic competitions, licenses are checked, but in foreign competitions this does not happen. Määttänen only competed abroad in the winter.
Before last season, payments were usually made through the clubs, but nowadays they have to be paid personally. Have there been complaints about this from athletes or club members?
– Very little. The license has been a mandatory competition permit for more than 30 years, but from last fall we adopted a stricter practice. If you make a result without a license, it is not an official result, says Muukka.
There are still unpaid licenses in the statistics. Among other things, living and competing in the United States Katarina Wright has not paid for this season’s license. This season, he clocked the top time in Finnish statistics with 52.57 track laps.
How does SUL react to the Wright case?
– This practice just recently changed. I haven’t had time to report these decisions to, for example, Tilastopaja. The decision means that if Wright or someone else runs the result abroad, the result is official and valid for statistics, says Muukka.