Jasmi Joensuu fell at the most important moment of the season and gave a sad account – the coach blamed the situation on the Pole

Jasmi Joensuu was fighting hard for the next place, but the job ended up crashing. Johanna Matintalo was puzzled by her clot. All Finnish women qualified in the WC sprint in the preliminaries.

Planica World Cup skiing on channels 22.2.–5.3.2023. See the program and broadcast information of the World Ski Championships at this link.

The Finnish women missed the heats in the sprint race of the World Championships in Planica with traditional skiing.

Jasmi Joensuu was the best Finn in the qualification, in tenth place. In the opening set, Joensuu was in a good position for Sweden Jonna Sundling after, but he tripped and fell.

– The ski slipped and the ski went on the wrong side of the pole. The position was a bit wide for a crouch. When the ski slipped, Jasmi couldn’t catch the held upper body. My fault, but a very sad situation. Before the fall, the situation was under control, Urheilu’s expert Kalle Lassila a bundle.

After the fall, Joensuu still tried to fight for third place in his heat and the time comparison place, but he didn’t quite have time for Germany Coletta Rydzek too before. In the end, not even Rydzek’s time would have been enough for the semi-finals.

Before the fall, according to Joensuu, the round had gone as he had thought.

– I watched the fall on tape a couple of times. Polish (Weronika Kaleta) came from behind and hit. It felt like someone knocked. I tried to gain control, but I couldn’t. I’m not explaining anything. I couldn’t stay upright in the most important place again. Yes, it says something, Joensuu said.

Joensuu has often experienced tough sprint stages. Last season, Joensuu fell in the world cup in Davos, Salpausselkä and Drammen. At the Tour de Ski, Joensuu crashed with a fellow competitor, and at the Beijing Olympics, Joensuu’s pole broke.

– I got quite a flashback feeling from quite a lot of last season’s races. I’ve held my ground surprisingly well this season, but it should have been guessed that this most important position would be boring again, Joensuu lamented.

Joensuu was not sure if he would be selected for other trips in the World Championships in Planica.

– Let’s see if it will be the same as in Beijing and there will be a race tourist trip. I do not know. Let’s see it then, Joensuu decided.

Finnish women’s coach Juho Halonen put Joensuu’s fall directly in Poland Weronika Kaleta to the spike.

– The Pole from Puola came on skis from behind. Jasmi couldn’t measure where the bangs would have been enough, Halonen said.

Medal candidate Matintalo confused

Was a medal candidate throughout the season Johanna Matintalo also missed the preliminary rounds. At no point did Matintalo get his skiing going and he finished last in his group. Matintalo was 18th in qualifying.

– The overriding feeling is a bit of confusion. I don’t know why it went as bad as it did. The time trial was already worse than I would have hoped. The batch phase was even worse. At the weekend, we did sprint training with the Finns and skied parts. It was better then. It gave me a good feeling to do my own thing and I believed that I could ski hard. Now the race was much worse than it was at the weekend, Matintalo said.

Matintalo couldn’t assess his mood in more detail considering the finals.

– I can’t really think ahead at the moment. We must first analyze and think about why this happened, Matintalo stated.

Also Jasmin Kähärä and Anne Kyllönen were eliminated in the preliminaries.

– Surely the women are disappointed with today. Matintalo’s skiing showed that he knew what to do. He just had nothing to give, Lassila decided.

Quadruple victory for Sweden

Sweden took the women’s quadruple victory when Sundling was number one, Emma Ribom was another Maja Dahlqvist third and Linn Svahn fourth.

– Sweden works really well as a team. I feel that in Finland there is sometimes more competition against Finns than against other countries. The Swedes immediately went their separate ways. I wouldn’t be surprised if they thought of tactics as a team, how to beat Kristine Skistad, from experts Matias Strandvall explained and pointed to the Norwegian who finished fifth.