At the request of Iltalehti, the world’s best -speaking athlete took a stand at the request of Iltalehti.
Iltalehti photographed Daniel Ståhl during the Midsummer Week at the Paavo Nurmi Games press conference. The hockey player would also have been photographed in Tokyo, but spokesmen from the Swedish Athletics Association did not allow foreign media to the Swedish team’s press conference. Jenni Gästgivar
The best Finnish -speaking athlete in Finland Daniel Ståhl Has followed a bit sadly with the collapse of the Finnish athletics team at the Tokyo World Cup.
At the request of Iltalehti, Ståhl took a stand, especially for the men’s spearfish, when all three Finns were eliminated in a historically final race.
– The Finnish spear throwing has gone up and down for the last ten years. Really boring that this happened and went bad. It’s a pity, Ståhl comments.
– But the guys come back, he adds.
Back straight
Daniel Ståhl will compete on Saturday in the morning in the morning of the World Cup in Tokyo. Picture of Paavo Nurmi Games in June. Jenni Gästgivar
The blue-white World Championships have gone collectively under the bench. Inter alia Wilma Murto, Ella Junnila and Urho Kujanpää They stayed in their sports without result.
Finns have shed numerous tears at the Japanese National Stadium. For example Elina Lampela, Eveliina Määttänen And Junnila has been crying since his performance.
– Don’t worry so much. Athletics is sometimes like this. Seasons come and go. For example, the season 2024 was bad, but 2025 has gone a little better. It cannot always be super good, the Swedish hockey throwing star, who is happy to encourage Finns, announces.
Athletics is one of the most popular sports in Finland, so the collapse of the national team in the capital of Japan is a hard blow to bench athletes. Spearfish could even be described as a national shame.
Ståhl is encouraging in his comments.
– I want to tell the Finnish people that my back is straight and forward. Yes, that result is still coming.
Daniel Ståhl’s interview was conducted in cooperation with Expressen, a Swedish tabloid. Swedish journalists asked Iltalehti’s questions to Ståhl in Swedish. The athlete answered them in Finnish. Iltalehti received a sound recording of the debate.
An exceptional solution was decided because the Swedish Athletics Association spokesmen Anna-Lena Pettersson and Mathias Karlsson have denied foreign journalists to attend the Swedish Athletics Team press events in Tokyo.
Pettersson and Karlsson’s decision is contrary to all international practices and restricts freedom of expression.
The previous country in the World Championships in Athletics, which was known to organize press events in closed doors, was the Soviet Union.