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Antti Örn49, coached personally Top from Raitawhen the competitive young orienteer became an endurance runner.
Örn, the former national team coach of the orienteering association’s youth, influenced the sports career of the talented all-rounder from the age of 14 until the age of 20.
On Friday, August 19, 26-year-old Raitanen achieved one of his dreams when he won the 3000-meter steeplechase European Championship in Munich.
Raitanen’s former coach admits that he has received congratulations from other colleagues for the ground work that has been done. Those in the field know that the foundation of an athlete is laid specifically in the age range of 14–20.
In the interview, Örn wants to be the first to correct the perception in the public that Raitanen was initially just an orienteer and only then moved on to athletics.
– Although I was primarily an orienteering coach, Topi and I always had orienteering and endurance running side by side in the program. Even then, he competed hard in athletics. As I recall, already in 2014 we were talking about the Olympics and specifically Tokyo, says Örn.
Tokyo’s Olympic dream came true last summer. Four years after Raitanen started investing 100% only in athletics.
Raitanen was 14 years old when he started coaching Örn. Örn describes Raita as smart and competitive.
– He was a normal teenage boy, he had the same things in mind as other teenagers. When the eye averted, Topi ran to the boxing gym. I had to make my biceps grow, just like my peers.
Wrestling matches with the coach, ran away to the Tuusula sports field
Örn says that he has had many playful wrestling matches with his protégé on camping and competition trips. You always had to try something.
– We had such a deal that when it was a light training day, nothing extra could be done. Top had such a habit that he could “run away” to the Tuusula sports field to try out how hard the 400 meters would be this time. He was already competing against himself and the clock in everything possible, laughs Örn.
Raitanen’s competitiveness was visible in practically every practice.
– In standard exercises, the moped often got out of control. It was more important that a record was created than whether the training remained in the right power ranges. It was a good feature when it was once a young athlete whose recovery was very fast.
When coaching Raita, Antti Örn thought that the physical abilities of this young talent could last exceptionally far in the future. The dream of succeeding in the Olympics was what drove young Raita forward.
– In 2014, I told Top that there is no obstacle that he could succeed in the Olympics. At that time, we were always talking about the Olympics, not the European Championships.
Of course, Örn didn’t know that Raitase would become an Olympic athlete and European champion. The conditions were there.
Örn reminds that only a few prom athletes achieve their dreams.
– Someone wise has calculated that there are fewer Olympic medalists in Finland than lottery winners.
“You have to be Elvis if you’re going to win Topi in the last round”
When Raitanen left for the last round in the obstacle final in Munich on Friday, Örn thought at the receiver that now he has to be a real Elvis if he is going to beat Raitanen.
The final was like a script for Raitase, who is extremely fast in his long final stretch.
– Topi and I started training with the idea that speed comes before endurance. This is an exceptional way of coaching in endurance sports, says Örn.
– I have had such a coaching philosophy that endurance is increased over time, speed can be maintained longer. At the time, we had more strength and speed training than usual, it was of the sprint type.
According to Örn, Raitanen’s characteristics suited him as a hurdler like a fish to water. Seven years ago, the coach sensed that the 3,000-meter hurdles would become Raitanen’s main sport.
In the summer of 2015, Raitanen went running in the home country of the steeplechase, and on that basis he was selected for the youth Sweden match.
– When I met Topi, who won the race in the Stockholm stadium, right after the race, it became very clear to me in the roar of the crowd that this is what Topi wants to do in the future. In his second steeplechase of his life, he ran from the vertical forest in 8:52, recalls Örn proudly.
In orienteering, we move to the adult series in our twenties, so the end of the collaboration between Örn and Raitanen was timely six years ago. Although the break of a long coaching relationship was naturally painful, even a sensitive matter at the time, Örn was extremely happy that Raitanen transferred Janne Ukonmaanahon under the wings.
– Coaching is to the greatest extent a game of interpersonal relationships and there must be a seamless team spirit in order for it to work.
– I know that Janne and Top have a better time than me. I’m glad things turned out this way. That is one big factor why the European championship has come about, Örn points out.
Easy to support, nothing negative to say
Harri Veijola has known Topi Raitanen since childhood and even today exchanges Christmas presents with him. Veijola has made friends with his peers Anssi Rantanen with him since his army days and through that has gotten to know his son, the Finnish hurdler.
The company managed by Veyola has fully supported Topi Raitanen’s sports career for ten years. At the age of 18, Topi worked at the company for one summer.
– Topi has always been very determined, pleasant, considerate of others and a guy older than his age, who is an extremely easy athlete to support.
– When I was first asked about supporting Topi, I didn’t have to think about it for more than five seconds. You couldn’t say a single negative thing about him.
Veijola reminds us how orienteer Topi Raitanen won the world’s largest orienteering event, the Swedish Cross Weeks, which included 20,000 competitors. He won at the age of 15 in his age group, the first Finn.
– When we started to support 16-year-old Topi, he was clearly the guide at that point. When Topi won the World Youth Relay gold, he was still thinking about orienteering as the number one sport.
Veijola tells how Raitanen called him worried about whether the support will continue if the main sport changes to athletics. Veijola has a background in orienteering.
Veijola replied that of course it will continue.
– Topi is humble, but doesn’t humiliate anyone. He is well-behaved and at the same time extremely ambitious when the gun goes off or there is competition for something. Our annual sports meetings don’t have to be a very strange, playful competition when Topi’s competitive spirit comes to the fore, Veijola smiles.
Topi is exactly the same guy as when he was younger
A long-time member of the Helsinki Planners, who has had an impact as a background person for no less than 33 years Synnöve Miettinen remembers Topi Raitanen, who started the sport at the age of 7, from an early age.
– Topi is sympathetic, upright and fair. When we were on the competition trip, he was always coming up with something nice and was wonderfully social. To me, as European champion, Topi is still the same guy as when he was younger.
– When we went to the relay race in orienteering, the boys and Topi always encouraged each other. Nobody was ever bullied during bad times, says Miettinen.
Miettinen reminded that Topi’s parents Anssi and Tuija Raitanen are wonderful people. Family upbringing is strongly reflected in the hurdler’s personality.
– There has always been a good feeling about their family. Anssi and Tuija were always with Topi on his race trips, cheering him on. In the near future, they will be the administrators of the evening parades with the spirit of the workers.
– On Friday, you could see on the TV how Anssi’s father shouted to Top in the stands with his head red. I even sent a message to Anss afterwards that Topi brought gold thanks to you, Miettinen says on the end of the phone.
Miettinen says that he would have needed nitrous on Friday evening, when the European steeplechasing championship crashed into his favorite.
– I stood and sat alternately, tense the whole time. Topi’s eyes could already see at the start of Munich that today is going to be fine. I didn’t dare to guess what it would be.
Miettinen hopes that Raitanen will return to orienteering after his track and field career.
– Then I’ll have him completely again.
– Surely Topi would come to orienteering competitions even now, if he only dared. However, orienteering is an unpredictable sport when running in the forest. He could break himself no matter how badly.