Anne Kyllönen has made big changes to her training for this season. He anchored Kainuu Skiing Club’s Finnish Cup relay victory in Vuokatti.
Anu Karttunen,
Laura Arffman
The women’s relay of the Finnish Cup in Vuokatti saw a close fight to the end, but the winner was a surprise to many. Kainuu Ski Club Anne Kyllö35, is not known as a cannon, while Vuokatti Ski Team Kainuu Jasmin Kähärä, 23, is Finland’s sprinter hope. Many expected Kähärä to get past Kyllönen, but despite his good final stretch, Kyllönen was able to keep Kähärä behind him by the length of the mono.
Sports expert Even Jussi Piirainen admitted that he was surprised by the end result. According to him, if only 100 meters had been skied, the predictions for Kähärä would have been correct.
– Kyllönen’s long streak bit, and it was important for him that he came first to the final straight. Even though Kähärä got tougher at the end of the straight, it just wasn’t enough. Kyllönen was able to maintain the speed better, Piirainen stated.
Kyllönen himself said that he got an advantage from the fact that he had been able to practice the final four times on Saturday. He finished third in the freestyle sprint race, when Kähärä missed the race.
– I would have taken almost any skier on the final straight, except Jasmine (Joensuu) and Jasmine. There was fear the whole way. There was already feedback from Kuruto that it wasn’t really there. That’s a small minus for me, he laughed.
Kyllönen’s tactic in the second round was to make a long creeping streak. He believed that he would be able to dull Kähärä’s letter this way. However, Kähära did not fall off the ride.
A small stress injury on the curler
Kähärä had thought that his final fight was enough, but he was mostly just satisfied that his leg “stayed together”. In the medal interview, he told the reason why he missed Saturday’s race.
– Had a small stress injury in the rear thigh-buttock area. It didn’t make sense to ski two races, a hard sprint and a relay, for this. Let’s hope that in a couple of weeks the situation will have calmed down for the better and I will be able to ski a lot of races, Kähärä said.
According to Piirainen, it is worrisome if Kähärä has to dig up new ones because of his trouble. However, in his opinion, Kähärä’s solution was reasonable.
– It makes sense that he doesn’t compete too much when his main goals are the World Cup. He has the conditions to reach the top positions at some point. You always have to be careful when there are such ailments in the background, Piirainen said.
Kyllönen made the right decision
For Kyllönen, Vuokatti’s Suomen cup weekend was successful, even though on Friday he was still thinking about his participation in Saturday’s sprint race. Free sprinting is not high on his priority list.
– Fortunately, I left. I haven’t done any kind of free sprint training, not technical or lactic acid pulls. I started the whole day in the mood for training and relaxed, Kyllönen said on Saturday after the sprint day and said that he had made big changes to his training.
– I did a lot of aerobic training and lactic acid-free intensive training. In the fall, it looked like I was in pretty bad shape, but many things have fallen into place. My goal is to compete a lot, it has always worked for me.
In the winning team of the Kainuu Ski Club, he skied the opening leg Johanna Ukkola and the second part Anni Alakoski. Second-placed Vuokatti Ski Team skied the opening leg of Kainuu Katri Lylynperä and the second part Vilma Nissinen. Vantaa Ski Club finished third in the composition Eeva Haasanen, Rebecca Immonen and Jasmi Joensuu.