The A national team does not go to training camps at high places in the summer and autumn at all. The plan did not suit Tero Seppälä. He will only join the national team for the competition season.
When the Biathlon Union announced its national team for next season on Monday, the country’s number one name was missing from the group Tero Seppälä27, as Urheilu reported already last Friday.
Seppälä opened up on Monday, for example, the background behind his financially tough decision.
– I am very committed to my personal trainer Anatoly Hovantsev for training programs in Kontiolahti, where I train three weeks out of four. When, at the same time, joining the A national team’s camp program would have required a much closer commitment than in the last training season, the equation was too difficult. It is impossible to commit 100 percent to two places.
In good spirit
Seppälä stressed that the matter was discussed in good spirit with the Norwegian head coach By Erik Bartlett Kulstad and the president of the union Kalle Lähdesmäki with. Both are convinced that Seppälä will join the A national team in top condition at the start of the competition season and will easily give the necessary performances for the World Cup representative duties.
– Anything else would be a shock to me, the head coach, reached in Oslo, laughed.
In the last training season, Seppälä belonged to the A national team, but participated in its program sporadically, which ultimately left a bad taste for both Kulstad and the athlete.
– It was a hybrid that didn’t work very well, Seppälä admits.
In the beginning of the camp season, Kulstad will no longer give anyone special exemptions, but the camps will go according to the head coach’s whistle.
– If I gave freedoms to one, they should be given to everyone.
No high altitude camps
Next season’s World Cup will be held in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, which is located only 600 meters above sea level. Partly because of this, the national team goes to a foreign camp only in Otepää, Estonia, and otherwise trains at home. This plan, on the other hand, did not suit Seppälä in principle.
– I feel that I need high-quality high-place training, because it best serves the main goal of my career, i.e. the 2026 Olympic Games.
Biathlon medals will then be decided in Anterselva at an altitude of about 1,600 meters above sea level, while the 2025 World Cup medals will be decided in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, at about 1,500 meters above sea level.
– Training in high-ranking training centers very likely also means a very tough training club from the toughest national teams, Seppälä says.
He has slowly started his machines in May.
– Serious training starts at the beginning of June.