The organizers of Planica World Cup skiing have reacted Arsi Ruuskanen to Friday’s accident. Ruuskanen and Italian Paolo Ventura crashed in a high-speed descent, after which they slid off the track.
The Italian avoided the wooden advertising fence erected at the side of the track, but the Finn was not as lucky. Ruuskanen hit his advertising mark. Doctor of the Finnish national team Janne Pesonen said on Friday evening that Ruuskasen has extensive soft tissue damage to his leg. Fortunately for the Finn, no fracture was found in the leg.
The race organizers have now placed protective cushions in front of the advertising fences at Ruuskanen’s accident site. The actions of the race organizers have attracted a lot of criticism during the opening days of the World Ski Championships. On the sprint day, the salting did not work. Many skiers fell in bad weather. On Friday, Ruuskanen’s hospitalization made headlines.
Ylen’s ski experts Ville Nousiainen said that it could have been worse for Ruuskanen. There is a large rock at the crash site, on which Ruuskanen could have hit his head in the worst case.
Matias Strandvall and Kalle Lassila raised the action of the race organizers on Saturday to the flop of the day. According to them, race organizers should ensure that the tracks are safe.
From Peru Jaime Huerta coached by a Finn Hannu Lappi on the other hand, found it incomprehensible that billboards were under rapid decline.
Cross-country competition manager of the International Ski Federation FIS Michael Lamplot says that he is sorry that Ruuskanen fell and was injured.
– It’s never a good thing when something like that happens. Unfortunately, however, sometimes accidents happen. I believe we did everything we could to ensure safety. We put a lot of protective mattresses on the track. But in joint start races, some crashes happen, Lamplot tells Urheilu.
According to Lamplot, the controversial advertisement was already removed in the middle of the race.
– Today we did checks again and installed new protective mattresses. I believe that the track is safe, Lamplot states.
Doctor A peso according to the Finnish team gave feedback on the safety of the advertising fence after Ruuskanen’s accident. According to Lamplot, they have mostly received positive feedback about the track. He reminds that the weather also affects Planica’s slopes.
– Everyone can see that the conditions have been challenging since the beginning of the Games. We try to get the best conditions for every race. Sometimes it’s cold and sometimes it’s warm. Yesterday was muddy. At the same time, however, the sections and climbs of the traditional way of skiing remained in order. Yesterday we reached the maximum we are capable of, Lamplot said.
Finland’s maintenance is a new concern on the World Championship tracks
Finnish maintenance has been worried about the littered tracks on Saturday. In the morning there were twigs and cones in the forest patch.
– Yes, that causes gray hair. When you go with skis, debris will definitely stick to the bottom of the ski. I hope the organizers get the trash out, Finland’s maintenance manager Mika Venäläinen stated.
Among the experts, Strandvall told what the worst can happen as a result of cones and twigs.
– Debris sticks to the skidder and the ski loses grip, but also slippage. If the cones or sticks are frozen to the snow surface and you pull over with the ice cream, you can accidentally throw a baseball, Sporten’s expert Matias Strandvall explained the background of the cleaning operation.
According to the Russian, the conditions for the women’s combined race are closer to Thursday’s sprint day than Friday’s combined race.
– On the sprint day, it was perhaps less salted. Now we have dared to salt more generously, when there is snow on the horizon for next night. There is no fear that we will salt every day and the track will become unskiable, the Venäläinen describes.
The purpose of salting is to make the surface of the track more icy, when the sun shines hard during the day in Slovenia and the track melts.
Lamplot also said that the entire jury of the competition was on the track in the morning.
– I think it’s good now. The trail is good and compact. We salted it. We hope that the track will be tougher than yesterday, Lamplot concluded.
Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Pärmäkoski are among the medal candidates in the women’s combined race. The race starts at 15:00.