A family tragedy. 1200 kilometers behind the wheel of a car in two days. Eero Hirvonen’s recipe for success in Kuusamo’s World Cup was at least unique, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
– Phew! Yes, the connected dudes are fine!
Iivo Niskanen throw to the reporter and coach who was on duty at the Puijo roller rink Petter Kukkonen laughed out loud at the guy the three-time Olympic champion was referring to.
It was last June, and after a many-year hiatus, they tuned in to return to the top of the sport Eero Hirvonen went on a roller ski run behind the hardest possible back.
In the back was an exercise led by Kukkonen, which sought an aggressive skiing position, where the coach used a long rubber band to brake the going of his athlete who was pushing uphill like a plow horse.
Forecaster’s fault
Niskanen may not have been very deeply familiar with the training data of his familiar athlete colleague, but even the forecaster’s fault can be found in the world’s best traditional technique male skier.
Whereas Hirvonen in Kuusamo six years ago came rushing to the top of his small form of sport, now he returned there.
Considering the starting points, Friday’s 5th place was an almost incomprehensible bet, but before we delve into those starting points, let’s allow a little speculation.
The freshness of the individual Compact, the competition format tested for the first time at the World Cup on Friday, is told by the fact that it hasn’t even come up with a name in Finnish yet.
The competition format that minimizes the time differences before skiing eats up the snacks of the best mountaineers anyway, and Jarl Magnus Riiberin it must have been designed to cut down on the downright ridiculous dominance.
Gundersen for the ball
In a normal situation, the individual compact would have served the mighty Hirvo in skiing. But right now, a normal Gundersen competition would certainly have catapulted the man to the podium, the first time in an individual competition since the competition held in Klingenthal on March 17, 2018.
Sensational success and third place on the hill brought a five-point difference to the four-time Olympic champion Jörgen To Grabak. It would have meant a good half a minute in the combined everyday, five miserable seconds in the individual compact.
And those starting points. Hirvonen left Ruka on Wednesday due to a serious health crisis of a close person. The next day, he returned to the race site in a state of turmoil, after about 1,200 kilometers behind the wheel for two days on the axis Ruka-Jyväskylä-Ruka.
In other words, not exactly the activity that most optimally serves the sensitive effort movement. Hirvonen made the decision to compete on Friday after a long car ride on Thursday evening, which went better than he dared to expect.
The journey was interrupted
Hirvinen’s linear journey to become a consistent success in the combined team was interrupted when a stress injury to the knee eroded his hill fitness for the fall of 2018.
There have been long struggles with the right knee, which was operated on in 2020. Now Hirvonen’s hill condition, at least at the beginning of the season, looks excellent.
The problems of Laukaa, who has always been one of the best skiers in the tour, have recently been surprisingly related to the latter part of the combined event.
He has not gained the same feeling and confidence in the equipment of his current ski partner as he did in the poles of his previous ski manufacturer, which has confused his skiing technique.
Coach Kukkonen opens up the tangle of problems in a very interesting way in the latest Urheilulehti.
If Hirvonen were to return to his old brand – let’s note that he has not hinted at anything like this or publicly criticized his equipment – it would also mean a change of downhill ski brand, too much fuss and a testing rumble.
The current partner has the line when it’s all from them or nothing from them.