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Five Finnish records in one government. Reetta Hurskeen the beginning of the athletics season has been, to put it bluntly, crazy.
On February 22, Hurske ran another Finnish record in the 60-meter hurdles in Madrid, Spain. The Tampere native, who became the first name in Finland’s high-level women’s high-speed hurdles, won the competition with a time of 7.79.
In Madrid, Hurske improved his own previous record by two hundredths. The previous Finnish record was set at the beginning of February in Poland.
Where the hundredths were pinched this time, Hurskee’s personal trainer Marjukka Suihko?
– He started that run better from the start than in the previous one that brought the Finnish record. He was hundredths better in breaking away from the racks, coming down from the first fence and in the first fence gap. They were faster now, that’s where they started, Suihko says.
Hurske has already run under 7.90 seconds 11 times this winter. The wild competition condition is well described by the fact that before the start of the hall season, the SE of the 60-meter hurdles was Nooralotta Nezirin ran 7.91.
Five Finnish records is of course a big deal for Hurskee himself. He is even more excited about how times have come.
– An even bigger thing is that I can compete on international fields and win there, and I don’t have to surpass myself in any way. I can do it with my own basic performance, which is a bigger thing for me. I am no longer a challenger, Hurske describes.
Expected surprises
Suihko has known how to expect excellent results from his protégé.
– Based on the exercises, this result development was clear to me when he has been able to be healthy, he says bluntly.
Hurske himself says that he has felt since his first race start in the hall season that he is ready to run hard results.
– I knew that I was in good shape, it has really already been noticed in training. The first race was the first race, but I knew even then that I could set the Finnish record. That result was still kind of a surprise, and kind of not, when it was contested in the middle of my training season, he reflects.
In training, according to Hurskee, “we haven’t started playing tricks”. He also cites staying healthy and thus improving the quality of basic performance as the biggest reason for his current top condition.
– The training load has remained such that it develops me, but we don’t overdo it, the runner sums up.
From the shadow of others to a clear top name
During the last few years, Hurske has had to seek his own time in the spotlight, alternating between Nezir and Annimari Kortene from the shadow. Now the speedster representing Tampere’s Pyrintö is the clear top name in Finland.
Hurske has been able to stretch when necessary, even now that top results have started to come.
– One of his best qualities is focusing on his own performance. As we have noticed, all kinds of things can happen in a competition situation, Suihko describes, referring to the competitions of the last few weeks.
– In competitions, he always does the best he can that day. In the exercises, we have also tried to learn the “standardization” of the performance. This has happened, for example, with hard fencing exercises, Suihko describes one strength of his shield.
Other exceptionally good qualities of Suihko’s trainer are reaction speed and starting ability. Along with them, Hurskee’s strength characteristics have developed for this season.
– Speed and strength have developed. However, it has been important that we have been able to transfer them to support his running technique, even though we are not doing actual technique training now. If the features don’t move to support the technology, you won’t be able to do anything with them, says Suihko.
– Even between the games, strength training is actually the only thing I do at Pirkkahalli when I get home to Tampere. There is so much running during the competition season, Hurske states.
Hallikai’s main goal is shining ahead
Hurskee’s new record also became the second best time in the world this season. When the only one above Poland Pia Skrzyszowska (top time 7.78) will not compete in the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul, the Finn will go to Turkey as the early favorite.
– When the Madrid general was this good, the starting points are of course tantalizing, says Suihko.
Swiss Ditaji Kambundjiof France Cyrena Samba-Mayela and the Netherlands Nadine Visser are, however, rock-hard challengers, as Suihkokin reminds us. Women with medals still lagged behind Hurske in, for example, Spain and Poland.
– The race partners are very familiar and we know how tough they are as value race runners. So the setting is delicious in my opinion. However, we will go there to fight for the European championship, Suihko sums up.
At this point, the best runs of the season have already been the very best in the world. Is the ceiling already visible, can Hurske still improve on this?
– I’m not going to guess how many hundredths will still leave or where that ceiling would meet. Perfect success is always required for every even harder performance. Reetta had previously said that it could still be a few hundredths off, so at least I believe her! The shower laughs.
Hurskee’s last EC indoor competitions were in Glasgow 2019. At that time, he was 0.02 seconds away from the bronze medal.
– There are some of them left in the tooth cavity, so we’ll see again at the weekend, he says with a big smile.