Kerttu Niskanen, Johanna Matintalo, Joni Mäki and Lauri Vuorinen cleared their way to the heats in the Falun sprint.
Anni Jämsä,
Riku Salminen
The cross-country skiing world cup culminates this weekend in Falun, Sweden. The competitions started on Friday in the sprint qualifying.
In the women’s traditional skiing sprint, perhaps the highest Finnish expectations were set Jasmi to Joensuuwho before Friday’s competition was the best Finn in the sprint cup in 13th place.
However, only a huge disappointment remained from Falun’s sprint qualifying. He finished 32nd and was eliminated from the playoffs for the first time this season.
Finland’s maintenance already had difficulties in the Drammen sprint, but the problems were even greater in the Falun rain. Joensuu finished 26th in Drammen.
– Yes, they (the last two sprints) went right into the notebook, to be honest, but this is how it is sometimes, Joensuu said, swallowing tears.
Joensuu didn’t want to blame the equipment, but he reminded that this season his second worst qualifying with the traditional one was 15th place.
– I heard intervals that I was in the lead and second. Then when I came to the finish line, I was suddenly nine seconds behind. Something mystical. It’s a bit sad, when I was able to win the qualification in Ruka and now the problem is skiing… For the first time in probably three years, I didn’t make it to the next round.
Joensuu couldn’t say what was wrong today. He stated that he was just trying to ski as hard as possible. However, today it was not enough.
Joensuu’s goal has been to finish in the top ten of the sprint cup, but now he hopes to stay in the top 15.
– However, this has been the most even season. It doesn’t feel good now, but I guess some good skis have been skied here, he said with a trembling voice.
Lylynperä upset the competition arrangements
Finnish women passed the qualification Kerttu Niskanen (17:s) and Johanna Matintalo (20’s). In addition to Joensuu, they remained in the qualification Anne Kyllönen, Katri Lylynperä and crashed and aborted on the last landing Tiia Olkkonen.
Lylynperä, who was only 49th in qualifying, also said that the equipment did not work.
– It went really badly. I would hope that maintenance would be given better working opportunities. Maintenance did not make it to the racetrack at all. I gave feedback ten minutes before the start that I can’t hold the skis on the race track properly.
According to Lylynperä, they tried to increase the grip on the skis without success.
– It happened to me that the strap got stuck on my skis so that I was really bad at descents.
Lylynperä continued that the working conditions have been really challenging lately anyway.
– For example, in Drammen, maintenance did not get to the track at all after qualifying. It’s sad that one part of the team can’t do the work, Lylynperä stated and called for better conditions for maintenance in the future.
The Finnish men passed the qualification Lauri Vuorinenwho was as high as third in qualifying, as well as Joni Mäki (8:s).
The final phase is currently underway on TV2, Areena and ‘s website monitoring.
Gentlemen:
1. Erik Valnes NOR 2.48,40
2. Johannes H. Kläbo NOR +0.33
3. Lauri Vuorinen FIN +4.64
4. Harald Ö. Amundsen’s NOR +5.01
5. Edvin Anger SWE +5.15
6. Ondrej Cerny CZE +5.45
7. Valerio Grond SUI +6.34
8. Joni Mäki FIN +6.54
9. Marcus Grate SWE +6.58
10. Sivert Wiig NOR +6.94
35. Emil Liekari FIN +10.80
39. Niilo Moilanen FIN +11.28
40. Ville Ahonen’s FIN +11.34
55. Juuso Haarala FIN +13.67
Ladies:
1. Jonna Sundling SWE 3.10.64
2. Linn Svahn SWE +3.21
3. Kristine S. Skistad NOR +5.71
4. Ane A. Stenseth NOR +8.19
5. Julie Myhre NOR +8.31
6. Mathilde Myhrvold NOR +8.34
7. Emma Ribom SWE +8.35
8. Maja Dahlqvist SWE +9.20
9. Laura Gimmler GER +9.23
10. Moa Lundgren SWE +9.54
17. Kerttu Niskanen FIN +12.37
20. Johanna Matintalo FIN +12.64
32. Jasmi Joensuu FIN +16.79
43. Anne Kyllönen FIN +21.25
49. Katri Lylynperä FIN +25.76
Tiia Olkkonen FIN DNF