The situation of Johanna Matintalo, who performed sluggishly in the sprint, is worrying, as she should still compete in the World Championships in Planica over several distances. Everything was supposed to be fine, but the race opening told otherwise.
Roope Visuri,
Laura Arffman
Planica World Cup skiing on channels 22.2.–5.3.2023. See the program and broadcast information of the World Ski Championships in this link.
The sprint races of the World Championships in Planica were perhaps the biggest mystery for Finns Johanna Matintalo.
He was 18th in qualifying. However, Matintalo finished last in the preliminary round and qualified. The final result was 26th.
Matintalo was considered a medal candidate for the sprint throughout the season, as he finished second in Beitostölen in December on the World Cup trip in the sprint of traditional skiing.
Of course, Matintalo said before the World Cup that his spouse Lauri Vuorinen the illness may have affected his hitting ability as well. For example, the relay race in Toblach went really low. Still, the weak pace of the sprint was surprising.
Matintalo had done a sprint training with other Finns over the weekend, in which they prepared for the final stage.
– The overriding feeling is a bit of confusion. I don’t know why it went as bad as it did. The time trial was already worse than I would have hoped. The batch phase was even worse.
– At the weekend, we did sprint training with the Finns and skied parts. It was better then. It gave me a good feeling to do my own thing and I believed that I could ski hard. Now the race was much worse than it was at the weekend, Matintalo said.
Coach just as confused
Also Matintalo’s personal trainer Ville Oksanen was amazed.
– Of course, today was a big disappointment. There was bad skiing in Toblach. It was to be expected that everything might not be right. This was surprising. At the weekend, however, a training session corresponding to the competition was skied. It was really good. We have to analyze and think, Oksanen said.
Matintalo’s situation also raises questions because the Finn would have even more trips available at the World Championships. One example is the women’s relay race, where Finland is one of the medal contenders. Matintalo is thought to be one of the surest names for the post.
Matintalo did not know how to judge his mood fresh after the sprint with the final race in mind. Like his coach, he wanted to analyze the causes of the collapse in more detail.
Is there much left to do here, Ville Oksanen?
– You can’t do it by practicing. Resting is good. Of course, one option is that we have done too much, Oksanen highlights the harsh situation.
– In a sprint, you can see pretty quickly if there is a load on the musculature. In that situation, it seems that you can’t do it. The truth is that you can’t go fast. That situation can come through the load. So, if at this point you decide to either exercise or rest, the choice might be to rest.
Oksanen is the coach of the Finnish men’s team. The day also contained plenty of twists and turns. Niilo Moilanen was as high as ninth in qualifying, but crashed in Sweden John Häggström with. Ville Ahonen unexpectedly made it to the semi-finals, but he also had a hard time. Ahonen’s semi-final went wrong when Norway was ahead of him Erik Valnes bumped up.
After the situation, Oksanen’s emotional and disappointed reaction was captured on TV pictures.
Oksanen told Urheilu that he had immediately received messages about appearing in TV pictures.
– Let’s hope that grandma and mom weren’t watching, Oksanen continued.