Finland’s ice dancing stars marveled at the cautious start to their World Cup career, but are caught up in a rare achievement

World Figure Skating Championships on channels 22.3–26.3. See the schedule of ‘s sports broadcasts from this link. Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis will skate their free dance on Saturday at 7:40 Finnish time. You can follow the competition live from Areena.

Ice dancers Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis enter Saturday’s free dance from eighth place in the World Figure Skating Championships in Japan. The successful rhythm dance brought a score of 76.97, which is only half a point short of the pair’s record.

The last rhythmic dance performance of the season did not cause cheers in Turkkila and Versluis, but left a good setting for the climax of the World Championships.

– Solid performance, we went for it and we are satisfied with it. The beginning was maybe a little cautious, but it got better towards the end. In terms of atmosphere and sharpness, it took a while to get going, says Turkkila.

Turkkila and Versluis say that their plans were not to go into the performance to make sure, so the feeling aroused wonder in them. The finishing exercises went great this week and the couple has confidence in what they are doing.

– Self-confidence did not shine from the beginning. Towards the end, we got to a normal feeling and really showed that we know how. It wasn’t technically that precise, but we enjoyed every moment, says Versluis.

There is still room to improve the ranking

Urheilu’s commentator Sara Honkavaara reminds that Turkkila and Versluis had not competed for almost two months after the European Championships. That could also have affected the rhythm dance’s first beats and the feeling of competition.

Honkavaara finds the Finns’ situation tickling. The strength of Turkkila and Versluis is their beautiful and emotional free dance, which won them bronze in January at the European Championships in Espoo.

– Turkkila and Versluis have such a strong free dance that I believe they will be able to squeeze a place or two even from that eighth place, if they succeed perfectly, says Honkavaara.

Turkkila and Versluis believe that the good mood found at the end of the rhythm dance will remain until Saturday’s competition.

– We start enjoying the free dance with really good feelings. We like to skate that program, says Turkkila.

Both ahead and behind Turkkila and Versluis, the point differences are small. There are so many points in the free dance that the rankings will probably change.

– Rhythm dance is merciless when it only has the five elements from which points can be collected. Today, the step series made a lot of difference in points, says Honkavaara.

Aiming for a second place in the World Championships

The Finnish couple has a good chance for a rare achievement: placing in the top ten would give Finland two representation spots in next year’s World Ice Dance Championships. Like Turkkila and Versluis, Helsinki Skaters are represented Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen have quickly risen to a good international level, so Finnish ice dancing is doing well at the moment.

At the World Championships, only Finns have reached the top ten Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko in the years 1990–1995. At their best, Rahkamo and Kokko reached the World Cup silver in their last season in 1995. After the successful pair left the ice, Finland still had two representative places in 1996, but since then there has been only one representative. In the years 2005–2011, Finland had no representation at all in ice dancing at the World Championships.

– Now it looks really good that Finland will get two pairs for next year’s World Championships. Turkkila and Versluis have said that as their goal. We start free dance from a very good situation in terms of this goal, says Honkavaara.

Janna Jyrkinen, 16, gained valuable experience

16-year-old Janna Jyrkinen placed 21st in the first adult World Championships. Although the free program did not go completely according to Jyrkinen’s plans, he kept his ranking in the short program.

– The program was by no means the best I can do. It’s been a long season and it’s a little tougher to skate this season. However, I fought until the end and there were some successes, Jyrkinen said.

Jyrkinen got a total score of 160.91 for the competition. The Lappeenranta native was about 16 points short of his own record. According to Jyrkinen, the first season in the adult series was instructive. At the European Championships in January, he finished seventh.

– There were a lot of big competitions, from which I gained a lot of experience. Next season will probably be easier when you know what they are like. Now we wanted experience. A really good season and I’m really happy about it, Jyrkinen said.

Jyrkinen, who attends elementary school, is planning a short break, a vacation for a week or two.

– Rest is important now that it has been a long season. I’ve earned it, Jyrkinen says happily.

Also the head coach of the Figure Skating Association Fairy tale Niittynen was satisfied with the young athlete’s development and stretching in tight spots throughout the season.

– An absolutely excellent debut season in the senior series and performed well. The goal was to get to the finals, the free program. You can’t help but be satisfied with the whole season, Niittynen is glowing with top promise.

Japan won the women’s singles figure skating world championship for the second time in a row Kaori Sakamoto.