The Finnish men’s relay team did a tough trick at the 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin, finishing sixth in the 4×100 meter final with a SE time of 38.92. Five years later, Finnish men’s sprinting is doing even better than ever before, and the sprinters’ eyes are already firmly set on the EC final of the sprint relay in Rome a year from now.
The relay team could open its summer competition season already at the end of May in Copenhagen at the Nordic championships. However, the price of a 40-second performance would be 1,600 euros, as the Finnish Sports Federation collects a deductible of 400 euros from each athlete named to the national team.
The Finnish record holder in the 100-meter run Samuli Samuelsson is worried about it, because the competition in Copenhagen would be important for the Finnish men’s relay team.
– It’s time to fuck that I pay for us to have a chance to get to the European championships. The Finnish Sports Federation clearly does not see that the PM race is important for us. The association makes each member of our relay team pay 400 euros per face. I am really disappointed with the union’s actions in this situation, Samuelsson downloads.
Having started as general manager of the sports association in March Jani Tanskanen according to the union, it is understood that the message of the PM Games is important in terms of EC displays.
– There are fewer display competitions in instant relay than in individual sports. Of course, every competition is important in that sense. Viestia will run as a national team in addition to the PM championships, in the European team championships and in the match against Sweden. If the screens of the EC competitions require it, we will still try to map out where it would be good to run the fourth relay for this summer with the instant relay training, says Tanskanen.
The 2024 European Championship will be organized in the beginning of the season, 7-12, because of the Paris Olympics. June. The European Athletics Federation has not yet published the result limits for the Games. However, it is known that for the relay ranking, each country needs two races that have been run within the qualifying window.
Samuelsson, who is currently training in Tenerife, says that the deductible has spoken at the camp. Those who took an instant message at the European Championships in Munich last summer Santeri Örn, Oskari Lehtonen, Samuel Purola and suffered an injury last summer Riku Illukka are, according to Samuelsson, also upset about it.
– The future of Finnish sprinting depends on our personal funds. Yeah that’s pretty sad. But we all want to run the relay and invest in it, because we have a really good chance of doing well in Europe in the relay, says Samuelsson.
The SUL boss understands the runner’s criticism
Samuelsson, who is a professional athlete, finds the situation contradictory. He has been offered the opportunity to go on a personal competition trip at the time of the PM competitions, the travel and accommodation expenses of which are paid by the competition organizer and where there is a chance to win prize money.
The remuneration of general athletes largely consists of the support of partners and prize money. For many, 400 euros is a lot of money to spend on a race trip out of your own pocket.
Financially, it would make more sense for Samuelsson to compete somewhere else, but since there are only a few opportunities for relay running during the season and European Championship performances are needed, missing out is not a good option either. At the camp in Tenerife, the running order has already been thought about and changes have been practiced.
– If someone is left out, they are immediately out of the team. That’s why everyone has to pull together, and in this case it pays to be able to run. This is an incredible situation. Of course, I would hope that the federation would make a change so that we as a relay team would not have to pay any deductibles.
However, there are no reductions for the 400 euro share. For some track and field athletes, the PM race is more important than for others, but the association does not want to treat athletes unequally because of that.
CEO of the Sports Association Harry Aalto regrets that for the first time SUL now has to collect from the athletes of the general category the deductible for the national team’s competition trip.
– I always understand the criticism when an athlete has to invest his own money. However, it is extremely important that the union’s finances are in good shape, Aalto states.
Last summer’s prize competitions were a blast
In the past, deductibles have traditionally been collected in youth competitions. An uproar about the issue arose in connection with the 2018 Para-athletics European Championships, when the deductible of 1,000 euros remained to be paid by the athletes who were excluded from the medals.
In last year’s financial statements, SUL was shortchanged by around one hundred thousand euros, which has already been offset. According to Aalto, the union is now doing “just fine” financially.
Finland sent record-breaking teams to last summer’s World Championships in the United States and to the European Championships in Germany, which was bad for SUL’s wallet. The large competition costs are the main reason why athletes have to pay the deductible in PM competitions.
According to Aalto, this year SUL still intends to stick to the line that all eligible athletes will be selected for the prestigious competitions. Currently, SUL does not plan deductibles for athletes for the World Championships or European Championships for adults.
– Last year, the budget of our competition teams was about 350,000 euros long. It was our conscious choice to go with a big team, if there are athletes and if the athletes play well. We wanted that line to hold. We will stick to that this year, but I won’t say anything about the sequel, says Aalto.
– This year’s budget is originally built for a deficit of 150,000. Everyone understands that we cannot run budgets with deficits for many years.
The general series Nordic championships are being held for the first time. It is only a one-time trial, the continuation of which will be decided by the Nordic athletics federations later.
The PM race hasn’t caused the Finnish Sports Federation any bigger shouts of joy, because the prestigious race calendar was already bulging from its joints.
– If I say frankly, the PM competition is more of a big space of will, especially for the small Nordic countries, which we wanted to experiment with in terms of cooperation between the Nordic countries. We have been very critical precisely because the international competition calendar is so huge. We also want to secure our own competitions in Finland, says Aalto.