Finland won two medals at the World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland. The next time the world championships on these trips will be contested in Kuopio in 2025.
Anu Karttunen,
Nina Old house
The Finnish orienteering team won two medals at the World Championships in Flims Laax: the men’s relay silver and Olli Ojanahon bronze from a long way. When World Cup medals were awarded for the same distances two years ago in the Czech Republic, Finland’s best finish was fourth place in the men’s relay.
Sports expert Minna Kauppi considered the Finnish team’s result from the Swiss Games to be good for a reason and praised Ojanaho as the team’s brightest star.
– The long-distance bronze was an incredible performance from Olli, and the middle-distance medal was also close. The men’s silver medal in the relay was the icing on the cake, Kauppi said.
Finland’s relay trio Topi SyrjäläinenOlli Ojanaho and Miika Kirmula succeeded brilliantly in the rough terrains of Switzerland right from the opening section. According to Ojanaho, the previous trips weighed on the legs, but the message always ignites. He was satisfied with both the team and individual medals, because Finnish men have not received them in recent years.
– That medal is a good thing for the whole of Finnish orienteering. In Norway, the relay won silver, but otherwise a little quieter on the men’s side. I hope this gives me and the rest of our men, who are also coming from outside the competition team, faith that this does not require miracles, Ojanaho assured.
Four years ago, Kirmula anchored Finland’s men to silver at the World Championships and repeated this trick now in Switzerland.
– I knew that my condition was good and I was able to sharpen up because of that, when in the relay you don’t just run your own race. It’s good to end here, even though the individual competitions were disappointing, Kirmula said.
Finnish women are also unlucky
The women had to settle for fourth place in the relay and in the individual competitions Venla Harjun sixth place in the middle distance was the best ranking of Finnish women. Harju covered all the distances in the games and was very tired after the anchor part in the relay.
– It could have been three of the hardest races of my life in a row like this, it’s a bit sour. But I thought it was great that we were in the medal fight at least until the beginning of the anchor section, Harju said.
In Minna Kaup’s opinion, the expectations for Finnish women were a bit tougher, but there was also a bit of bad luck involved. For example Marika Teinil had health problems, and he had to stop mid-distance and withdraw from the relay.
– The women were a little behind physically this time, Kauppi said.
Preparation for the home games begins
Next year there will be a sprint competition in the program of the World Championships, but in two years the World Championships medals for the forest tours will be contested in Kuopio. According to Minna Kaup, Finland can get to the home games with good setups.
– Home races are always easier because there is the familiar type of terrain. Of course, a lot has been prepared for these Swiss Games, but at home we are a little ahead of others. I believe that the success story will continue there, Kauppi said.
Home competitions give athletes more motivation. According to Ojanaho, the Finnish national team has a new head coach Thierry Gueorgiou led in the right direction, which is now good to continue forward.
– Let’s continue in the same way and work hard towards the home games, he stated.
At the end of August, the national team will have this year’s first camp in the terrains of Kuopio, but after that the focus will be on next summer’s sprint competitions.
– It was already promising that now we were able to be so close to the medals with the strength of many people. And knowing that the home terrains have little influence in orienteering, we know exactly what kind of maps and forests we have. We can certainly prepare for the home games with a good mood and expect a little better success, Venla Harju assured.