Eemil Helander, who has a strong oxygen uptake capacity, will start her first full season as an endurance runner.
Former skier Eemil Helader only skied a dozen times during the winter of 2021–22. The conscript service in Santahamina, Helsinki, was the biggest factor in this. Jussi Saarinen
Finland aired the silver in the World Championships for Youth in February 2021 in Vuokatti with the team Niilo Moilanen, Eemil Helander, Niko Anttola and Alexander Ståhlberg.
It was a quartet of top promises to be beaten Iivo Niskasen and a post-partner value team.
Helander decided otherwise. He stopped racing skiing soon after the World Championship silver. As one of the arguments, the resident of Jyväskylä mentioned that running training is more comfortable than ski training. The comment surprises both types of trainers.
– Without counting the autumn, you can train in Finland in good weather. In the skiing at times I got frostbite at the race venues. In skiing, the training amounts are quite large. An hour of running is equivalent to an hour and a half of skiing. Running is a more effective way to practice, Helander argues.
Running is a simple sport.
– You had to go to the ski race three hours before the start, when all the equipment had to be tested, Helander describes.
– The running task is easier and smoother. There were races in skiing, although I felt okay, the result list was not so good. There was always speculation as to whether the fault was in the instruments or where. Running, the clock says it all, he continues.
In skiing, the Finnish path to the forefront of the world would have been more straightforward than in endurance running.
– I guess it came to mind. But where there is a bigger fire goes above all else. The run fascinated me more.
Helander could also have become a hockey player, as he played for seven years in a JYP shirt.
A wild result
Last season, Helander was fourth in the obstacle course at the European Championships under the age of 23 with a very thin sport training. – The emphasis on equal skiing did not feel like it was my own thing. I went uphill on my feet, he says. Jussi Saarinen
Helander has run nearly 90 millimeter readings in a test measuring maximum oxygen uptake. That is a wild result.
– The emphasis on equal skiing did not feel like it was my own thing. I went uphill on my feet, strong legs but Helander, who has a slender upper body, says.
Maximum oxygen uptake refers to the ability of the respiratory and circulatory system to carry oxygen during maximal physical exertion. It is perhaps the single most important trait for an endurance athlete.
The most commonly used measurement is the relative oxygen uptake value, which is expressed per kilogram of body weight. In this case, the unit is milliliters per kilogram per minute (ml / kg / min).
European Championship medal in mind
Eemil Helander, who has strong legs, enjoys cross-country running competitions. Picture from last season. AOP
Helander is coached by a researcher at the Research Center for Racing and Top Sports Ari Nummela.
The main sport is the 3,000-meter hurdles, which already have the men’s Championship gold when Topi Raitanen was rejected last summer in Tampere.
Jyväskylä resident has run obstacles (8.39.75) more than five seconds faster than European champion Jukka Keskisalo and exactly 13 seconds smarter than Raitanen at the same age. He is also ahead of the namesakes in 1,500 meters.
– The first goal is to get to the adult championships, but that alone is not enough. The European Championship medal is perhaps the easiest goal to think about, even though there is an opportunity to succeed internationally in the obstacles.
Munich this summer’s European Championships limit 8.30.00.
– Last year, I improved my record by 20 seconds. Such a record is unlikely to come now, but the European Championship limit is quite possible.
On Wednesday at the Lahti GP race, Helander and Raitanen will compete in the 3,000-meter smooth.