In the Biathlon World Cup, a giant bang was seen on Sunday in the mixed doubles relay, when Suvi Minkkinen and Otto Invenius skied to third place.
Suvi Minkkinen and Otto Invenius brought to the table on Sunday the long-awaited top success in Finnish biathlon.
Minkkinen and Invenius finished third in the mixed doubles relay at Oslo’s Holmenkollen.
When Sweden Sebastian Samuelsson bent at the end Norway Vetle Christiansen, 30 seconds behind, Invenius was already able to adjust the ventilation. Invenius shouted wildly at the Norwegian audience.
– It was awesome. I had dreamed about it for a long time, Invenius said in an interview.
Switzerland came fourth, a good 10 seconds behind Finland.
The last time Finland was on the podium in a relay format at the Biathlon World Cup was in 1999. Invenius had not been born then.
Finland used only six spare cartridges in the race. Invenius says that he ran into problems at the last vertical position, where he shot one huti.
– In the last shooting, it felt like I shot everything down, but the last one stayed up. That’s when the shaking started, but then the hit just came from there.
It has been a challenging season for Minkki in particular. A year ago, at the World Championships, he was no less than eighth on the normal distance. This season, the Finn has not been in the top 10.
An upbeat Minkkinen brought Finland in the lead for the last leg.
– Great feeling. We have often been close to success. For example, there have been three good parts, but one bad part. Now we got four successful shares.
Minkkinen says that he took the pressure off before his last shooting by thinking that if he shoots badly, Invenius will be the chaser.
– I thought that let’s make Otto learn again. I succeeded with that.
– Summer made today too good a starting point. I had never been so excited about a race before. I was in other worlds. It was one of the best moments to leave the bow for the last leg, Invenius enthuses.
Sports expert Ville Kotikumpu said that both Finns performed almost perfectly today.
– Both athletes shot very well and the skiing speed was sufficient. This shows that it is possible for Finland to be in the top positions in the future when everything goes right.
– This is easier to implement the second time. Now the monkeys got off their backs.
Finland’s previous podium finish in the Biathlon World Cup was more than four years ago. At that time it was Kaisa Mäkäräinenwho skied in the top three in Oberhof’s joint start in January 2020.
Mari Eder reached the World Cup podium once in 2014 and twice in 2017 when he won the Holmenkollen races. Mäkäräinen collected podium places between 2007 and 2020.
The last time a Finn other than Eder or Mäkäräinen had stood on the podium was more than 20 years ago in March 2003, when Vesa Hietalahti was second in the normal distance race in Hanty-Mansijski.
The interview with Invenius and Minkkinen was ordered from SVT.