Venla Lehtonen fell short on the last climb in the World Cup sprint.
Roope Visuri,
Inka Henelius
19:54•Updated 19:55
Venla Lehtonen no longer competes in the Oberhof World Championships. Lehtonen, 27, froze on the last hill of Friday’s fast race. He had started the race promisingly, shooting zeroes from both places, but had to stop the competition.
On Saturday, Lehtonen left for Finland for more detailed investigations. He is suspected of having cardiac arrhythmias.
Doctor of the Finnish biathlon team Katja Mjösund communicated to Urheilu the background to the suspension of Lehtonen’s express train on Friday evening.
– Venla had Corona at the beginning of January. Since then, he has practiced normally and was in good health. The practice race on the spot went well and now I felt good in the race, until I suddenly got weak in the last lap. The situation is now under control, Mjösund communicated.
After the second shooting position, Lehtonen was in 48th place and less than two minutes from the top. The dreams of a place on Sunday for the top 60 chase were still alive. After the last shooting spot, Lehtonen was no longer clocked at the intermediate points.
The best World Championship ranking of 27-year-old Lehtonen’s career is 45th three years ago in Östersund’s fast track. The best World Cup result of his career is in Pokljuka from December 2018, when Lehtonen was 36th.
Coaching from the grove Kaisa Mäkäräinen commented on Friday night In the sports studio’s Instagram live (you will switch to another service) protected the situation.
– Venla just felt really bad and went down on the last climb. The race had ended there, Mäkäräinen said.
– Venla is an athlete who can pull himself together. Everything was still very vertical shooting. He shot both spots cleanly. If he had been able to ski the last lap as well as the first two, there could have been a place in the chase.