The competition for places at the European Championships in quick fences is heating up – this is how Neziri and Korte comment on their chances | Sport

The athletics GP series starts on Wednesday in Jyväskylä. Live broadcast at Areena from 17:40 and on TV2 at 18:30.

In the opening race of the athletics GP series on Wednesday, the focus is especially on the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Set up at the starting line in Jyväskylä Nooralotta Neziri, for whom the competition is an important opportunity to give displays on the 7th–12th. for the EC competitions in June. One of Finland’s top women as well Lotta Harala is participating in Wednesday’s race.

The competition for Finland’s three speed fence countries is heating up. Reetta Hurske was already nominated in the first stage of the selection. Harala, who has started his season strongly, is also quite sure to be in the race machine. His season’s best is 12.89, in addition to which he clocked a wild wind result of 12.64 this season.

The fight for third place will most likely take place between Nezir and Annimari Kortene between. The rest of the athlete selections for the competitions in Rome will be made at the end of May.

Neziri is the only one of the four who has not yet broken the result limit of the Games (12.98), but his ranking points also make him eligible for selection.

The best solution also in the opinion of athletes

It is written into the selection system of the European Championship that the most competitive and results-capable athletes are selected for the games.

– In women’s hurdles, there has been a discussion with the athletes and coaches about what that method is. We have jointly agreed that the average of the two best results this year will be the first to be looked at, general manager of the Finnish Sports Association Jani Tanskanen tells.

Therefore, previous displays, such as the result limit broken last summer, are not relevant.

According to Tanskanen, making a joint decision was easy.

– The athletes unanimously stated that this is the best solution in their opinion.

Tanskanen does not agree to pre-speculate, with the time window for giving the screens open, which of the women at Aturi would be going to Rome at the moment.

A typical early season for Nezir

Nooralotta Neziri also thinks that the chosen selection method is good.

– In my opinion, it’s okay in that way that if you’re not among the top three in Finland, then it’s just not enough for the European Championships. Of course, I think that if you want to do well in the European Championships, it’s good to be able to be in the top three in Finland first, says Nooralotta Neziri.

He has two races under his belt from this outdoor track season, of which the best result of the season is currently 13.14.

– The first race was bumpy. There was a momentary fear that I might offend. My calf cramped a bit, but luckily it recovered for the next race. It was a really good race there, but the result was the same basic season opener for me, says Neziri, but he seems confident that the results will improve as the season progresses.

– It’s quite typical for me that competing in early summer is a bit of a chore to get the rhythm working.

Nezir’s record is 12.81 run in the summer of 2016. He recalls that the results of the first runs of that season were also similar to this summer.

Before the possible EC competitions, in addition to the GP in Jyväskylä, he will also run in Pärnu on May 28. Naturally, one would hope for a big success in Rome.

– Of course, first you have to find out about the competition between Finns. But now I take it easy and let it surprise me.

Korte has already achieved his biggest goal

Annimari Korte started her outdoor track season last weekend in Sweden at the Nordic championships, but she didn’t run in the finals, even though she made it there. In the preliminary heats, his time was 13.34, but due to the tailwind, the time is not valid for statistics. Korte says that there was an illness in the background, from which he had not recovered properly.

Korte is still not sure if he will have time to participate in the two races before Tuesday, May 28, by which time the EC race displays must be given.

– Today (Wednesday) I was supposed to compete in the silver level race in Norway. I had decided that I would rather try to collect ranking points for the Olympics than compete in the GP race now. But when I hadn’t quite recovered on Sunday, I concluded that there is no point in going there to Norway to compete now. I tried to rest a bit and I’m trying to figure out where to run the two races here, when I’ve maybe improved a bit more, says Korte.

After Jyväskylä, the GP series continues on Friday in Lahti, but at least Koretta won’t appear on the start list yet.

Last fall, he had his hamstrings cut. The main goal for this season was to get back into running shape after major surgery. Everything else would be a plus.

– Even that was so unlikely that I would still be able to properly run fences. I feel that I have already achieved what I wanted at this point. I didn’t have to end my career with surgery, but I got in such shape that I can decide for myself if I will compete, where I will compete and what I will compete in, says Korte.

– Even if I miss the EC, it’s not a big deal for me now that I’ve gotten in shape, Atiri continues.