The Finnish skiers for the World Championships in Planica were published on Tuesday morning. Outside of the 17 named athletes, there were a few skiers who regularly toured the World Cup in recent years. On the women’s side, the sprinter Katri Lylynperä was not selected for the team. On the men’s side, there were, among other things, left out of the World Championships Markus Vuorela mixed Lauri Lepistö.
Instead, a recent junior world champion was named to the men’s team Niko Anttola. Head coach of the cross country team Teemu Pasanen says directly that Anttola will have to ski a 15 km free race at the Games.
– He has been in really good shape this season. Now he gets to try it out in prestigious competitions for adults, Pasanen explains the choice of the young skier to Urheilu.
Sports expert Kalle Lassila was satisfied with Anttola’s choice. According to him, the 19-year-old skier has shown this season that there is speed.
– Choosing Anttola was absolutely the right decision. He is a super promise by all metrics. We need to give the young person the opportunity to grow to the top level of adults through adult competitions, Lassila downloads.
According to him, Anttola can practically do a really hard performance at any time, when the skier’s age and development curve are taken into account. Despite the fact that there are still several World Cup competitions behind.
The management of the national ski team thought about the eligible athletes ahead of the competition trips. According to the head coach, the selections didn’t produce a big headache in the end.
– In the end, they were pretty clear. We look at the selections in such a way that there are four skiers for each trip, then the team is formed from that, Pasanen opens the selection process.
The results of regular skiers were not enough
Pasanen describes Vuorela, who was left out of the men’s team, and Lylynperä, who was left out of the women’s team, as having a very similar situation for this season. The results of both did not justify the selection.
– Markus has skied really consistently on all normal trips this season, but on no trip does he fit into the group of four skiing athletes.
– In the traditional sprint, Katri has not had such results this season that she would have fit into the group of sprint women, Pasanen described.
Dropping out of Vuorela’s competition team was a surprise for former value skier Lassila.
– He has been very consistent this season, but there hasn’t been a single top performance, which certainly affected the World Cup selection, Lassila reflects.
Vuorela commented in an interview with Ilta-Sanomi that he was disappointed about being left out. He himself highlighted the absence of individual top skiing.
– It’s sad. I just should have been a little better in one of the races. Good and steady skis between 20 and 30 in the rankings are not enough, but there should have been one clearly better flash, the skier told Ilta-Sanom (you will switch to another service).
Lassila was not surprised by Lylynperä’s fate, even though she has good results in past years. According to Pasanen, the final decision regarding Lylynperä was made after the traditional sprint of the last World Cup held in France.
– We looked through all the results of the season, and Jasmin Kähärä gave a pretty hard performance at the Junior World Championships, says Pasanen about the skier who won the Junior World Championship gold in the sprint at the end of January.
The expert calls for medals
According to the head coach, the Finnish team is looking for medals from Planica, just like last season’s Olympics.
– There are several good trips in Planica. To accumulate (Neck) has a chance for a medal in several trips, Ivo (Neck) is at least a medal candidate in the 50-kilometer race, and in the messages, of course, we start fighting for medals.
Lassila says that the Finnish team will go to the World Cup with a moderate outlook, even though the last World Cup weekends have not raised expectations.
– However, the fact is that Finland is a great country for cross-country skiing. There must be medals, all other results are disappointing, says the expert directly.
Pasa is not worried about the situation of Iivo Niskanen, who has skied since contracting the corona virus in November, a ragged season.
– Iivo has always got himself in shape for prestigious competitions, the head coach finishes.