Samuli Samuelsson, who survived his Achilles injuries, was first guided by his own father Harri when he was younger, until Mauri Salomäki came into the designs. The fresh 100 meter SE man is currently being coached by Mikael Ylöstalo.
Samuli Samuelsson Sunday’s 100-meter Finnish record surprised the father, who closely followed the sprinter’s career Harri Samuelsson. Samuli Samuelsson clocked 10.16 on the track straight in Porvoo. He broke the 21-year-old Tommi Hartonen Finland’s record 10.21.
– Indescribable atmospheres. A tear rolled into his eye. I remembered the time when this sports career started and now we are here. This is absolutely wonderful, Harri’s father told Urheilu.
Harri himself used to run long distance races and inspired Samul to join the sport. According to him, the boy has had a shot at the Finnish record for some time.
– Sprinting is a sensitive sport. The last few years have shown that it could come from there someday. Now it came quite unexpectedly.
The Finnish record at 100 meters has been Samuli Samuelsson’s goal for years. He hasn’t thought about prize competition places or medals.
– Everything comes only with the result. You can’t aim for a certain prestigious ranking when you can’t influence the performances of other competitors, Harri said.
– If he runs that long there, he’s probably at least in the semi-finals, Harri said.
The familiar man behind the success
As the bloodline of Harri, who enjoyed baseball and sprinting, Samuli moved around a lot as a child.
In the P-13 series, Samuli won his first district championship medal in the sprint and Harri-isä stood out. The boy needed a coach. He asked about the task Mauri Salomäkiwho had worked in the 70s as the game director of Harri’s baseball club Ikaalisten Urheilið and later as its sprint coach.
A coaching guru known to the family laid the foundation for Samuli’s success.
– There is no better coach than Salomäki. He knows how to build a sprint program. Samuli has said that the timing of Mauri’s training is in a class of its own. It is to Mauri’s credit that we have come this far. Mikke has still fine-tuned the last couple of years, Harri said.
“Which” ie Mikael Ylöstalo started supervising Samuli’s training after he moved to Helsinki to study in 2017. Salomäki retired from coaching at the age of 88 two years ago. Today, Ylöstalo is responsible for following Samuelsson’s technique as well as other coaching.
Achilles problems ruined two seasons
In 2013, Samuelsson ran for the first time in the youth championships, with distances of 200 meters and relay. A year later, he was already a substitute for the men’s relay team at the adult EC competitions in Zurich.
In 2015, Samuelsson won his first adult WC gold in the 200 meters and ran sixth in the 200 meters final of the under-22 European Championships as a minor with a time of 20.90.
In the same year, SE time 10.30 for the under-23s was born, which ran Eetu Rantala the Finnish record set three years earlier.
The next two seasons were quieter. Samuelsson suffered from an Achilles tendon injury and was on the sidelines in 2018-19.
After recovering from Achilles tendon surgery in 2020, Samuelsson continued where he left off. He won the SM gold in the 200 meters and silver in the 100 meters and improved his 100 meters time by two hundredths of a second.
Last year, two SM silvers from short distances accumulated in the trophy case.
This season, Samuelsson has competed in the Paavo Nurmi Games, the Oulu ranking competition and on Sunday in the top games in Porvoo, where a new Finnish record was created.
– In 2018 and 2019, a break from the racing fields would not have been desirable, but Samuli is a really Conscientious guy. He does everything he’s told. Here is the result. Samuli is an absolutely amazing guy to train with, Harri-isä praises.