The domestic athletics season culminated at the weekend with the traditional match against Sweden. Based on the statistics, Finland, which went into both matches as early favorites, eventually succumbed sharply after dramatic stages.
Even though Finland wanted to win both matches until the end, the balance was disappointing compared to prior expectations.
A victory of almost 30 points was predicted for the women in advance with readings of 238.5–212.5. On the men’s side, the victory finally put the Swedish athletes in third place in the final events in length and javelin. Before the last rounds, Finland was locked in a triple win in both sports.
– You could already taste the victory before Sweden had two attempts left, one in the long and one in the javelin. The Swedes succeeded in both.
– Victory can’t be any closer than that. In that sense, it was disappointing. The same goes for women, Urheilu’s expert Jaakko Ojaniemi crystallize.
According to Ojaniemi, Finland did not have any flop sports on the women’s side. Small margins went to the Swedes.
– It was even. In many sports, 2–3 points were missed from the forecast, Ojaniemi sums up.
The Swedes are also wild at the European Youth Championships
Finnish athletics has been on the upswing in recent years. Little attention has been paid to the fact that the level of Swedish athletics has also expanded with top athletes, by Armand Duplantis mixed Daniel Ståhl double cloth.
In the under-23 European Championships held in Espoo, Sweden with its five medals was overshadowed by Finland’s three golds and ten medals.
In the under-20 European Championships, Sweden was handsomely second in the medal table after Germany. The balance was five championships and two silver medals. Finland’s corresponding balance was two golds, four medals.
In the national match held in Stockholm, Sweden gave the lead in advance with their heavy absences. On the sidelines of the competition were, for example, the shot putter Axelina Johanssonlong jump stars Thobias Montler and Khaddi Sagni and elite runners Andreas Almgren and Andreas Kramer.
Although, of course, top athletes were also absent from Finland, spearheading the spear thrower Oliver Helander and a 400 meter hurdler Viivi Lehikoinen.
In the national match that decides the majority of the season, you rarely see a high level of results. However, many Swedes even set their records in the match against Sweden. One example of this was Sweden, who won the triple jump with an excellent result of 14.27 Maja Åskag. He broke his record twice.
– Somehow, Sweden can dig into a better mood for the international match. The same situation happened in last year’s match as well.
– The very top names in Sweden are tougher than in Finland, but overall we are already quite close. Good work is being done in many sports in Sweden as well. Finland has to work hard to keep up. However, both are going in a good direction, Ojaniemi reminds.
A wild view
The past athletics season for Finland was a great success by many standards. When Wilma Murron The WC bronze and youth medals are added together, the final result was no less than 15 medal places.
– This was a positive season as a whole. That one World Cup medal came and the youth games became a great success. We got a little more from the prize competitions than we thought beforehand. There was a wide improvement in the different sports groups, Ojaniemi says.
As far as international level athletes are concerned, the Finnish guard is really wide today. Even with the successful ones in recent years Top with Stripe, Kristiina Mäkelä, At Senni Salmi, Krista Tervo mixed Sara Lappalainen was a challenging season as a whole, replacement names came out to take their place.
Such names included, for example, racing walker Aku Beardena 7-gamer Saga Vanninen and an 800m runner Eveliina Määttänen.
Among the previous top names, Murto, Silja KosonenLehikoinen and Helander established or improved their international positions.
In addition Juho Alasaaren, Veera Mattilan, Jere Haapalainen mixed Max Lampinen such young promises rose well to the surface.
– I had the feeling that this trend will continue. If you think about next year’s European Championship, there are really many potential medalists. Why not also for the Olympics.
In last year’s European Championships, Finland won two championships, a total of four medals. Based on the situation at the moment, we are allowed to expect an even bigger medal haul.
Potential EC medalist favorites or candidates for next year’s Rome Games are at least Murto, Kosonen, Helander, Partanen, Lehikoinen, Raitanen, Vanninen, Lappalainen and Määttänen.
Shall we start predicting six or even eight EC medals from Rome?
– That would be quite hard. If there is more than the last European Championship, it would be a good performance, Ojaniemi sees.