The severity of Jonni Sarkkinen’s hand injury only became clear after the Olympics. However, he does not explain his loss at the Paris Games with that.
Mika Halonen,
Jouko Vuolle
In Jyväskylä wrestling Jonni Sarkkinen22, sprung a surprise in the spring when he wrestled an Olympic spot for the Paris Games in the 77 kg category.
The ride at the Olympics was cold, as Sarkkinen lost his opening match to the Armenian world champion To Malkhas Amoyan 0 to 8. The match, which ended in an overwhelming points victory, was quickly over, and Sarkkinen was badly disappointed in his Olympic debut.
The men will wrestle for the WC medals in Helsinki on September 21, but Sarkkinen will not participate.
– In June, in the race preparing for the Olympics, I broke the ligament above my knuckle. It was only studied after the Olympics. It turned out that it needs to be cut. I have surgery on Thursday and it will be fixed.
So Sarkkinen wrestled in Paris with a broken hand. He did not know the severity of his injury.
– It was taped all the time. I thought it was just a basic sprained finger, nothing more. There was also such a mentality that I didn’t think anything of those injuries. Then it turned out that it is surprisingly bad.
However, Sarkkinen does not explain the defeat to the Armenian, who went on to Olympic bronze, with his hand injury.
– The injury didn’t hurt much. Maybe it was a bit difficult in the grips, but when taped it was able to wrestle. It didn’t affect the result.
Sarkkinen decided with his background team that it is better to operate on the hand.
– The entire ligament is severed. You have to sew it up to get better. I could keep wrestling with it taped up, but then it would be taped up for the rest of my career. We see that it is better to fix now.
Sarkkinen will have to miss the U23 World Championships in October. He says that his shoulder has also been bothering him, so he also has time to heal at the same time.
– The next competitions will be around next year. There are immediately tough ranking tournaments in February.
Harjun Woima’s wrestler is coached Brother Karri Suominen. His father Pasi Sarkkinen is a long-time sports coach and currently the executive director of the Finnish Wrestling Association.
Jonni Sarkkinen, who has reaped success in youth value competitions, says that he has decided to focus even more on wrestling ranking competitions in the future with his coaching. In the past, he has missed them a lot.
– Currently, the ranking system is such that those who succeed in those competitions also succeed in the value competitions.