Lauri Vuorinen the deafening sprint day culminated in the 29-year-old Finnish skier’s first individual podium place in the World Cup.
Vuorinen’s second place on Friday was decided only in the final straight, where he fought against the Norwegian foursome. The Finn defeated Harald Amundsen and Even Northugand finally just Johannes Kläbo was faster than Mt.
‘s expert Aino-Kaisa Saarinen knew how to expect Finnish success after seeing the men’s qualifiers.
– Unbelievably great performance. Yes, you saw it right away when you watched the qualifiers, that yes, it is Lauri’s day. That skiing looked so sharp and wonderful, Saarinen beamed.
Although Vuorinen was in a tough group in his semi-final, Saarinen was particularly happy that a Norwegian skier was in the team.
– It was really good that Amundsen was in the same race as a locomotive. Lauri knew that he had to make it to the continuation in time and ski hard. At the finish you could see that he is really tired, but with that the place for the final opened up.
Vuorinen was fourth in his semi-final, but when the pace was not maintained in the second semi-final, the place in the final was opened by time comparison.
In the final, Vuorinen found a new gear, even though at the beginning he seemed to fall behind the pace of the others. According to Saarinen, Vuorinen’s top ranking was not decided By Erik Valnes and by Johan Häggström crashing on the last descent.
– I thought that Kläbo and Valnes would take the first places, but third would be up for grabs. Then Valnes was tackled away. Laurihan is known for having very fast hands and is therefore able to succeed in the rest.
Mäki and Joensuu
Joni Mäki was 18th and thus the second best Finnish man. However, Saarinen doubts that the long season was reflected in Mäki’s mood.
– Joni had a good attempt today, but he seems to be a bit slow in his execution. Maybe the snacks have already been eaten for this season.
According to Saarinen, it was also possible to see from the performances of the Finnish women that winter is already far away, and the power is about to run out. Jasmi to Joensuu the failure in the qualifiers was a surprise.
– There was quite a big collapse. We’ve gotten used to Jasmi usually being well within the top ten after qualifying. If at this point the ski does not work well and the mood of the day is bad, everything repeats itself and it can happen like this.
Towards the World Cup qualifications
Saarinen also beat the Finns’ performance throughout the sprint season. According to him, one star emerges from the whole: Lauri Vuorinen.
– Vuorinen has been able to make a huge leap in one season. He swam in pretty deep waters last year but was still able to get up and take the next step. It was realized in today’s race, which crowned everything.
Saarinen also places Joni Mäki among the successful, even though his season has not been as smooth. The development of the Finns in the field of sprinting inspires Saarinen to already anticipate next year’s World Championships.
– Over the years, Joni has achieved great results, and he still has the potential to ski on the podium. Now we have two podium-level skiers in the sprint, and next year’s World Championships will be all eyes on them.
However, at the World Championships in Trondheim, the individual sprint competition is skied in free skiing, which is not the Finns’ strongest field. According to Saarinen, this is not a problem.
– Now the end of the rope has been caught. Let’s give the men a year’s worth of rail for it, and believe that there will be two potential final skiers in the Games.
On the women’s side, several Finnish skiers have flashed great successes, but Saarinen needs consistency. According to him, something needs to change in order to be successful in the sprint.
– Jasmi Joensuu has established his level, Kerttu Niskanen fired up to ski the best performance of his career at Canmore and Johanna Matintalo was particularly successful in North America. It is good to start improving, and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
During the season, 13 sprints were contested in the World Cup. Sprint Cup wins went to Kläbo and Sweden Linn for Svahn.
Of the men’s sprint finals, Kläbo won nine, Valnes two and France Lucas Chanavat two.
In the women’s sprints, Svahn and Norway Kristine Stavås Skistad picked up five wins each. Swedish Ebba Ribom climbed to the highest podium in two sprints and Sweden Jonna Sundling once.
The final climax of the cross-country skiing world cup in Falun continues on Saturday with the 10 kilometer (p) races. The women’s race starts at 12:00 and the men’s at 14:55. Live broadcasts on TV2, Areena and in the follow-up article on ‘s website.