Kerttu Niskanen fought for third place, even though the feeling was wild on Thursday – in this section Finns are squatting | Sport

Kerttu Niskanen started Saturday’s joint start race while recovering. Despite this, he finished third in Oberhof.

Kerttu Niskanen Oberhof’s entire race weekend was in jeopardy, as he revealed to Viaplay that he had a stomach bug on Thursday. On Friday, he missed the sprint race, but in the 20-kilometer traditional cross-country race, he fought his way to third place.

– I vomited myself completely empty. Yesterday I stayed within the four walls and tried to eat, but of course it wasn’t optimal. Then in the race, on top of everything, I still didn’t get to drink. It’s amazing how the energies are enough until the end. But it saved us that we didn’t ski as hard as that end, Niskanen told Viaplay.

The race was quite a standoff from the start.

– This is a worse farce than the men’s competition, expert Ville Nousiainen cheered at ‘s commentary.

Niskanen knew that the race would be decided in the last kilometer.

That’s Niskanen, Frida Karlsson and Katharina Hennig broke away from others. Karlsson managed to hit the last downhill so hard that Hennig and Niskanen fell. Hennig was 2.3 seconds behind the Swede and was second, the difference between Niskanen, who came third, was 3.8 seconds.

– I couldn’t quite handle the climb and I couldn’t follow the girls to the finish line. I didn’t get to challenge them for better places, but considering this situation I am satisfied with the third place, Niskanen told SVT and banished the headwind during the race, which made it difficult to get away.

Niskanen only decided this morning to start the race.

– We still had to see how the night went and whether everyone would stay inside. Nothing, it stayed until Thursday. It goes without saying that when you empty yourself, you don’t fill yourself up in an instant and your stomach can’t handle that energy as normally, he told Viaplay.

“We are not the number one country in that”

Sports expert Ville Nousiainen stated in the commentary booth that Niskanen’s good basic condition saved the good result.

– Kertu’s condition does not collapse from a small illness, but his ability to recover lasts. If it affected something, it was the fact that there was no victory today, but he was third, Nousiainen said.

Finland’s overall contribution to the competition was good, because Krista Pärmäkoski was ninth Johanna Matintalo 13th and Anne Kyllönen 22:s. Also Katri Lylynperä and Jasmin Kähärä got into the points, as Lylynperä was 30th and Kähärä 32nd.

According to Nousiainen, the success of the Finns could be even better if the skiers’ ability to push straight was in the same category as, for example, Swedish women.

– I hope that Finland will figure out how to get the tasur’s grip to be sufficiently good. We are not number one in that. We have never had, and we still don’t have, normal trips, Nousiainen stated.

– Yes, everyone takes care of someone’s Kir sometimes, but you should be able to be dangerous on a regular basis. This shouldn’t be completely impossible, but it requires group training and the right methods for it.

Urheilu follows Urheilustudio’s weekend in this article. On Sunday, it’s the relays, the live broadcast of the women’s race starts at 11:45 a.m. and the men’s race at 2:10 p.m.