Iivo Niskanen stopped the final competition of the World Cup. Urheilu’s expert Ville Nousiainen wondered about Niskanen’s equipment problems.
Anu Karttunen,
Riku Salminen,
Petra Manner
Iivo Niskanen stopped the last race of the World Cup, the 20 km freestyle skiing joint start race in Falun after just over six kilometers. Niskanen first pressed on to the service truck before arriving for the interview.
– Something happened with the patterning, Niskanen said, referring to the patterning on the bottom of the skis.
He said that he noticed right away that everything is not right now.
– Something happened that it didn’t fit into the tools. However, the first vitone was quite slow, but it was still… interesting. It’s been such a long day, but you can’t help it. It sucks to say the least.
Sports expert Ville Nousiainen wondered the reason for Niskanen’s suspension and how many problems the Finnish skiing ace has had with the equipment.
– I accept it if this happens every now and then. But yesterday was the same thing, today and a few other times too. When you also know that Iivo has the ski equipment, he has the know-how, he has maintenance men and his ski equipment is certainly the most invested in the national team – and then he has the most problems, Nousiainen said.
– Does he have even a little too much choice? Will there be a problem? Iivo knows best what the situation is and how to fix it.
Niskanen’s season has been quite a rollercoaster, and he has been sick several times. Niskanen was satisfied that he got the momentum to turn into a plus sign.
– Of course, it would have been nice to ski a free jacket today, but… All in all, I had a good rest of the season. I am satisfied that the last month went well, Niskanen said and said that the season will continue in the WC.
– Of course! Last time, Äänekoski had good races, so there next and again on Friday.
In 2019, Niskanen won both the 15 km traditional and 15 km free championships in Äänekoski. This year, the Äänekoski SM competitions will be skied on the 22nd–24th. March. The races can be watched on ‘s channels.
Remi Lindholm stretched to the best of the season
Remi Lindholm was close to reaching the best World Cup ranking of his career, when he was the best Finn of the day in 11th place. Last season in Östersund, Lindholm was a notch better in the 10 km free.
Lindholm opened his season strongly by placing 12th in the 20-kilometer freestyle skiing combined start competition in Ruka, but after that his placings were mostly in the ynna muut section. Lindholm has not been stressed, even though there have been no competitions this season. He has done the same things whether the competitions have been successful or not.
– Time Basic season for me. Next year is the World Cup in Trondheim, and if you get in bad shape again where you usually are, you will get pretty bad places. We have to get the fitness spike to hit the right place, i.e. fifty on March 8, Lindholm said.
And how do you celebrate the end of the World Cup season?
– At least for the doping test next. Have to ask Pera (Perttu Hyvärinen), what are we going to do, Lindholm wondered.
1. Johannes H. Kläbo NOR 47.06,4
2. Gjöran Tefre NOR + 0.4
3. Martin L. Nyenget NOR + 2.2
4. Jules Lapierre FRA + 3.0
5. Mika Vermeulen’s AUT + 4.0
6. Jan Thomas Jenssen NOR + 4.4
7. Hugo Lapalus FRA + 5.6
8. Jens Burman’s SWE + 8.2
9. Friedrich Moch GER + 8.5
10. Iver Andersen NOR + 9.0
11. Remi Lindholm FIN + 9.0
25. Perttu Hyvärinen FIN + 44.3
42. Arsi Ruuskanen FIN +1.35.9
50. Lauri Lepistö FIN +2.21,4
71. Lauri Vuorinen FIN +4.02,3
Iivo Niskanen FIN DNF
Update at 16:58: Added Remi Lindholm’s comments and final results.