Suvi Minkkinen is emotional about her biathlon start – this made possible a huge surprise in Kontiolahti | Sports in a nutshell

Suvi Minkkinen tuned in the Kontiolahti World Cup sprint race for Finnish biathlon. Minkkinen gave the performance of his life and crashed onto the podium in third place.

The 29-year-old Finn was strong at the shooting range, where he shot zeroes. Minkkinen’s performance was strong on the track as well.

Minkkinen got himself a pleasant birthday present in advance, because he turns 30 on Sunday.

In a surprising race, the victory was celebrated by the Czech Republic Marketa Davidova. Swedish Elvira Öberg also took second place ahead of Minkkinen.

Minkkinen was 12 seconds behind Davidova.

Minkkinen has been in a great mood at Kontiolahti. On Wednesday, he was tenth in the normal distance of 12.5 kilometers. At that time, it was the second best finish of his career in an individual race.

Before Saturday’s third place, Minkkinen’s previous career best finish in the World Cup was eighth place.

First I was sad

In an interview with , Minkkinen told about his mood when the race was underway. At that point, he still didn’t know about his prize winner.

He rained down on his weak end.

– I gave my all, but it felt like my legs had been eaten until the end. Too bad it didn’t make it to the end. If that podium place was caught, Minkkinen thought.

Didn’t stay in the end.

– An amazing race. I was thrilled to ski, Minkkinen said in an interview.

He had to keep his emotions in check during the race.

– It’s amazing when people shout all the time that they are in second place. I also heard at some point that the gap to the rear slightly increased, Minkkinen felt.

Everything is possible in the future

He was responsible for Finland’s previous individual World Cup podium finish Kaisa Mäkäräinenwho won at Oberhof 2020.

After that, Finland’s only award place in biathlon had been Minkkinen and Otto Invenius last season’s third place in the mixed doubles relay.

Mäkäräinen was now excited about Minkkinen’s top competition as a commentator in ‘s newsroom.

Minkkinen has invested a lot in this season. The durability properties have improved a lot.

– There is a lot to endure. The speed aspect has been good in the past, but it has caused challenges. I’ve pushed so much harder than my fitness can handle. I’ve skied my feet.

Many peaks were in trouble with shooting. Not Minkkinen.

– I just tried to trust that the board would fall.

The Norwegian head coach of the Finnish biathlon team Erik Kulstad was naturally happy with Minkkinen’s performance. In his head coaching career, this was his first individual World Cup podium finish.

– I have no words. This is something I didn’t expect him to do. But he did it! This is an emotional moment.

This was only the first games of the season. What else can you expect from Minkkinen this season?

– If this is possible, we can expect anything in the future. He has now shown everyone that he needs to be watched. This is cool, Kulstad rejoiced.

An emotional moment

Later, Minkkinen returned to ‘s interview booth. Now the third place was known.

– It feels really great. Really big investments and big camps abroad have been made for this season. In the summer, I felt that things had moved on.

So Minkkinen was previously tenth in Kontiolahti. The speed race is considered a race for hard skiers.

Skiing speed has been difficult for the Finn in the past.

– I did not expect such a start to the season. The top 10 was not a surprise. However, the podium is tough in the speed race, because it is said that it is a race for good skiers. Now I can probably call myself a good skier, Minkkinen grumbled.

Minkkinen thought that he would have been able to perform such performances only next season. For this season, the top 6 places seemed realistic.

– Expectations were high, but I don’t know when I thought the first podium place would come, Minkkinen was amazed.