Joonas Rinne was the first to fall from the second heat of the 1,500 meters. The Finnish runner, who made his debut at the World Championships, was waiting for a place in the semi-finals.
Joel Sippola,
Petra Manner
Athletics World Championships 19.8.–27.8. Ylen channels. See the schedule and broadcast information of the games at this link.
Based on statistics Joonas on the slopes there shouldn’t have been any return to the 1,500m continuation place at the World Championships. Saarijärvi Pullistus runner’s statistical ranking before the Games was 45th. Only six runners had a lower statistical time.
However, Rinne, who ran in his first World Championships on outdoor tracks, fought until the very end for a place in the next round.
Rinne, who ran in the second heat, was only a meager seven hundredths of a second behind. He was knocked out of the continuation by Kenya’s star runner Timothy Cheruyoit. It is the world champion from four years ago and the Olympic silver medalist.
The run turned into a fierce struggle, in which even pushing was not avoided. Rinne seemed to stay in the bag, but cleared himself at the end of the straight to fight for the next place. Rinne, who was trying to push on the fourth track, had to find out when six runners finally pushed past him.
Rinne was seventh in the set. The sharp fall was a shame.
– I thought that this is the type of round that has the best chance for a place in the next round. Now it didn’t come. I was left wondering if some small things should have been done differently. It’s nice that it was a sloppy and not a fair fall.
– It just wasn’t enough. I’m disappointed when it was so small.
According to Rinne, the nature of the run was not much different from, for example, domestic competitions.
– It’s pretty much the same whether it’s the GP or the World Cup arena in Budapest. A similar 1,500 meters was run. The most challenging part was where to put the last batter on the counter. Now I was left with the feeling that something could have been done earlier.