Verneri Poikonen, who dramatically improved his best World Cup ranking on Saturday, is a talented freestyle sprinter.
Joel Sippola,
Riku Salminen
24 years old Verneri Poikonen came into the spotlight of Finnish cross-country skiing for a while with his sprint semi-final place. Poikonen is a name unknown to the general public.
Read more: The Finnish sprinter hit hard in only his sixth World Cup race: “I’ve been waiting for when I can get out of the cell”
Before the Falun sprint, he had been at best 30th in the World Cup. On Saturday, that ranking was improved by throwing, when the Finnish surprise was 12th.
He was responsible for the Finnish men’s first free sprint semi-final place in the World Cup.
– There aren’t too many of them from previous seasons either. It’s really great that we got a new semi-final skier, the coach of the men’s cross country team Ville Oksanen tells.
Poikonen represents Äänekoski Huima in central Finland at the club level. He won gold in the free sprint at the Universiade in January.
What type of skier is it?
– He is a really lovable and nice guy. He is a really good guy when it comes to sprinting. He has been a good event skier in the past, who has been able to make good final moves. A good development curve is underway.
Rarity
Free sprints are traditionally difficult places for Finns at World Cup level.
– Many others are stronger in free than traditional. That way the competition is tougher. We have a strong tradition of traditional since our junior years.
However, Poikonen is an example that talented freestyle sprinters can also emerge from Finland. Another such example is a 22-year-old Jasmin Kähäräwho skied this trip to the semi-finals in last season’s Dresden race.
– Last year there were good signs in terms of time off. Let’s hope it moves here to the World Cup level. Verneri is a good example that free is stronger.
– Training always needs to be improved, of course. It’s not necessarily always the case that we’re bad when we’re free. Maybe it’s that we’re better at traditional. Of course, everything needs to be improved, Oksanen concludes.