A sprinter Samuli Samuelsson criticized the Finnish Sports Federation in May for the fact that the Finnish relay team would have had to pay a total of 1,600 euros for participating in the Nordic championships. The event was held last weekend in Copenhagen, but the Finnish men’s 4 x 100 meter relay team was not seen at the line.
The reason was that those selected for the team Santeri on Örn and Eljas Aalto had health problems. The PM race would have been an important display place for the relay teams for the European Championships in Rome in the summer of 2024.
The European Championships are exceptionally held in the Olympic year already at the beginning of June, so it is important to give demonstrations this year. The European Athletics Federation has not yet published the result limits, but for the ranking system of the relay, each team needs two races. They must be run during the qualifying period.
Samuelsson’s statements about a month ago spoke volumes. The Finnish Sports Federation charged each athlete named to the national team a deductible for the costs of the competition trip.
Samuelsson, who ran 10.16 in the 100m SE last summer, says some misinterpreted his comments.
– A lot of people forgot that I didn’t criticize the fact that participants in individual sports are asked to pay a deductible. There was such a need in the union’s budget and this came as a new competition.
– I criticized the relay team’s self-responsibility. We have only one attempt to get a ranking result this year. It’s in Poland during Midsummer (European Team Championships). The point was that we would have had to invest 1,600 euros of our own money as a team.
It also saddens Samuelsson that the relay team didn’t get a team to Copenhagen in the end.
– I had a bad feeling that we didn’t get a healthy team. There was a deputy who was also unable to participate due to health reasons. We were in good shape in Tenerife and expectations were high. Now it was left for Midsummer, Samuelsson laments.
The match against Sweden qualifies as an EC show
Samuelsson is of the opinion that the match against Sweden at the end of the summer cannot be shown for the European Championships.
– It doesn’t have enough lands. There should be one more country. I can’t say how those scumbags are doing in these messages. Even if I try to dig for information somewhere, I can’t find clear information anywhere.
General Manager of the Finnish Sports Association Jani Tanskanen according to Sweden, the match qualifies as a display match.
– The European Athletics Federation has not published the qualification system yet. An international relay competition requires that there must be teams from at least two countries running. I checked this with the EAA rules, which have been used for example for the European Championships in Munich, Tanskanen says.
Tanskanen says that if possible, the third display race will be organized this summer.
Since the European Championships are already at the beginning of June 2024, there are few screen opportunities next year. One option is the relay World Championships held in the Bahamas in the spring.
– Of course, this summer you have to run hard so that Finland gets an invitation there. Then there is possibly the PM race, if it is in the time window next spring and is organized. Now this was a pilot race.
– This year, just to be sure, it’s good to make enough displays, because next spring will be really short in all sports, Tanskanen reminds.
The European team championships are less than a month away. According to Samuelsson, it is uncertain whether Finland will field a team capable of striking due to the health situation.
– As far as I understand, not everyone has anything terribly serious, but of course I can’t speak for others. I believe that we will get a really good team together in Poland, says Samuelsson.
“There were messages that my coming out was even outrageous”
Samuelsson admits that his previous comments about deductibles caused a lot of discussion. He says that he has received messages from, among other things, many athletes from other sports.
– There were many messages about the fact that there are certain sports where athletes go to prestigious competitions completely on their own responsibility and with much larger sums. There were a lot of messages that my coming out was even outrageous in this matter.
– Perhaps the athletes of all sports do not understand the athletics side of this matter. In athletics, we talk about a much bigger organization than the equestrian or rugby union. There were also people who understood this coming out.