After a long break, Rosa Pohjolainen returned to real action at Levi. However, he withdrew from the race on Sunday, and Urheilu’s expert Kalle Palander did not completely digest the decision.
Anu Karttunen,
Riku Salminen,
Inka Henelius
Four Finnish women were supposed to start today in the Levi World Cup, but in the morning they were told that they wouldn’t Rosa Pohjolainen let’s start. Head coach of the women’s national team Mikael Kurki told Urheilu that the decision was made in the morning.
– He is not ready for the start of the World Cup at the moment. He is physically fit, the knee is completely fine and the descent has also been very fast in training, Kurki said.
– However, we felt that the competition break is too long, and because of this we are building a new plan.
Urheilu’s expert got the 20-year-old alpine promise three years ago Kalle Palander to tears of happiness when he downed Levi without bias for the second round and the World Cup points. The following year he was also in the points in Levi and in the same season in the Schladming slalom Pohjolainen finished as high as 14th.
After this, the difficulties began. After two knee surgeries and more than 18 months off from competition, Pohjolainen returned to real action on Saturday, but stopped his descent quite quickly.
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Kurki said that Pohjolainen’s competition program now includes FIS competitions first, and after that he will move back to the World Cup via the European Cup. This may also have a positive effect on Pohjolainen’s starting number in the World Cup, as he will be able to improve his FIS points in the European Cup.
In alpine skiing, the starting number is important and the skiers’ starting numbers are determined by FIS points, which are obtained from competitions under the International Ski Federation.
Sports expert Kalle Palander saw Pohjolainen still on Sunday morning while watching the track. He said that he partly understood Pohjolainen’s decision, but his head was still spinning.
– What more can be said here. It’s a pretty amazing thing, because the conditions will not improve during this season, Palander stated.
– But now we have to start building. Probably smart in the way that the World Cup was not the right place to start. Let’s then get a feel for the FIS Championships and the European Cup one step at a time. You can’t really think of anything else here.
Kurki reminded that you can’t put a skier in the race unless he wants to ski at full speed because of the risk of injury.
– We don’t want to risk the future at all, and the athlete himself has to want to start. When the calculator is sure of himself, he goes to the start. When he is not, then he does not start, Kurki said.
Kalle Palander did not want to take a direct stand on Kurje’s comment.
– It’s almost better that I keep quiet. I really can’t say. Don’t they themselves know better about their decisions. Pretty good, I must say, he contented himself with saying.