Finland once considered an Olympic boycott because of cross-country running. It’s not quite that far now, but a bomb at the turn of the week can revive a faded culture, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
At this time of the year, when you write endurance sports-related columns in Finnish, you’d think they’d mostly be related to feats seen on skis or stomach-churning, but what else.
A week ago, on this column, it was surprising that he persisted without an athlete grant Camilla Richardsson’s SE bet at the Valencia Marathon. This time, we will take a closer look at a form of running sport that is considerably softer in terms of its surface, but even tougher in nature, i.e. cross-country running. It can be considered the toughest endurance sport in the world with good reason.
In the autumn mud of Flanders on the outskirts of Brussels, at the weekend’s European Championships, Finnish fireworks were unparalleled – and for those outside the inner circles of the sport, i.e. today, almost all Finns, it must have been completely out of the question. Ilona Mononen and by Nathalie Blomqvist medals and Mustafa Musen mixed Santtu Heikkinen otherwise, excellent bets in the under-23 series at least took the signee into a nostalgic mode.
Even a few years ago, the idea of a team medal coming from Utopistan would have turned into flesh, blood and lactate if Monose and Blomqvist had a Finnish club on the track.
National weight
Grown-up Finnish lovers of endurance sports remember very well the national importance of cross-country running from decades ago. The sport’s spring championships were always the starting shot of a fascinating long summer. But in order to remember how much cross-country running has meant to Finns, you have to be quite a senior citizen.
Now there is talk of an Olympic boycott again, but that was also the case in 1928. The International Olympic Committee had decided to remove cross-country running from the Olympic program, which infuriated some Finnish hard-headed sports influencers so much that even sending a team to the Amsterdam Games was questioned. Between 1912 and 1924, six Olympic golds were awarded, including Finland Hannes Kolehmainen and SpongeBob Nurmi five raked as number one horses.
On top of the cupboard
The 1970s were the golden age of Finnish track endurance running. Pekka Päivärinta won World Championship gold in Waregem, located 80 kilometers west of Brussels, in 1973. Also won World Championship gold in the girls’ series Annemari Sandell achieved women’s World Championship bronze in Belfast 1999. These freezing medals rest on top of the most handsome cabinet in the history of Finnish endurance sports.
Like Urheilu’s expert, coach Janne Ukonmaanaho In the EC broadcast, it was stated that the Cross-Country World Championships are the toughest running event in the world, probably also an endurance sports event. From the gathering of African crabs, the European ace could come home as a great success Jakob Ingebrigtsen. However, success at the level of the old continent is perfectly sufficient for mortals.
Norway showed again in Brussels why its success in any less competitive form of endurance sports is no wonder. It’s about culture. The result exchange of the British athletics magazine Athletics Weekly typically includes the statistics of dozens of off-road events outside the track season.
In Finland, the spring cross-country championship tradition has slowly fallen out of the media coverage, and the competitions have always attracted only a small part of the elite endurance runners who are preparing for the track season.
Next spring, the SM terrains will be run in Kotka, about a month before the European Championships in Rome. The timing is very critical for those who seek success in the Eternal City – and the Kymenlaakson trip is a sensitive part of the plans.
In 2025, we will see a smart reform, when the event moves to autumn and becomes a qualifying race. Especially since it has been seen for a long time now that success requires nothing but work and talent from Finns.
Pekka Holopainen
The author is a columnist based in Pori and the only sports reporter who has been selected as Journalist of the Year in Finland.
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