Lotta Harala, one of Finland’s women’s speed skaters, advanced from her collection round to the semi-finals. Reetta Hurske was two thousandths away from the second place in her heat and the semifinals.
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here.
A fencer Lotta Harala was responsible for Thursday morning’s happiest Finnish performance on the Olympic track and field stage. Harala and Reetta Hurske ran in the 100-meter hurdles after being left out of the semi-finals in yesterday’s preliminaries.
Harala advanced to the semi-finals as the winner of the last collecting round, but Hurske finished third in his round by two thousandths and out of the semi-finals.
Hurske watched his teammate’s collection from the mixed zone after the interview he gave to . Hurske’s reaction after the set was decided spoke volumes. Hurske slapped his hand hard after Harala reached the finish line, crouched down for a moment and then continued his journey in the mixed zone.
You can watch the events in the video located in the main picture of the story.
Harala won the third round with a time of 12.86. Hurskee’s fate was harsher, as he ran the fourth fastest time of 12.83 in the collection stage, but was left out of the semi-finals.
– There were problems with the departure from the racks. On the training field, the run often started to plow, so to speak, which actually happened in the race run as well, but luckily I got it together, Harala analyzed to after the collection phase.
– After the beginning, there was such a rush of will. “Damn it, we’ve come here to play sports,” Harala elaborated.
Harala compared his performance to yesterday. From the beginning, the runner was left feeling confused.
– Yesterday before the performance and immediately after I felt much more confident than today. The run felt good yesterday. When the time was so bad, I wondered a little what happened, Harala sneered.
Hurske was naturally disappointed after his collection batch. The goal camera check of the set took a long time until the Ecuadorian Maribel Vanessa Caicedon and Hurskee got a decisive difference.
– I knew that the next place would be tight. I ran all the way to the finish line. It took a long time to check, but now it went like this, Hurske told with emotion.
– A more balanced run than yesterday. Today was a much better feeling and from the warm-up everything felt really good and I felt confident, Hurske compared to yesterday’s heat.
– Passing through the collection batches is quite strict, there are only two batches and times don’t matter. Today I was third and there is no further matter. I was ready to run here for many days, but now it stopped here, Hurske decided.
Harala is the second Finnish speed skater ever to reach the semi-finals of the Olympics. He enjoys the achievement.
– Maybe I’m not one to enjoy experiences, but I came here to perform in the best way and now it came at the right place. I’m really happy about that, Harala says.
The 32-year-old runner knows what he needs to improve in tomorrow’s semi-final.
– You have to make the departure go in your own best way. The running starts to absorb better, now it was tiring. In the best case, the run sucks from the stands, Harala analysed.
– It’s tough when you run three days in a row, but we’ll do our best, Harala concluded.