Iivo Niskanen’s bluff was revealed

– That would have been fifteen sacks in the World Cup.

That’s what he announced after his victory in the Finnish Cup Iivo Niskanen on Sunday in Kuusamo.

Iltalehti’s skiing expert Reijo Jylhä takes Niskanen’s words as a bluff.

– Iivo is Iivo, Jylhä laughs.

– It could be that Iivo’s “bad” skiing is next Saturday at the World Cup on the same course and on the same distance in the five sacks. Sen Iivo knows that with that performance on Sunday, he will not get on the podium, and especially not win. Iivo just wants to win, the expert adds.

Skiing people don’t need to worry about the condition of the host in Savo, Jylhä estimates.

– Based on the TV image, with the second place Cross mat at Hakola had better skis than Iivo. Whereas “Rise” would have climbed a tree on his skis, Iivo’s equipment was flailing, commented Jylhä, who watched the games on a business trip to Saariselän.

– With skiing like Sunday’s, Rise skis about fifteen skis in the World Cup. Now the difference between Iivo and Rise was 17.5 seconds. It should be 30–40 seconds for Iivo to win in the World Cup, adds Jylhä, who has been the head coach of the national team for nine years.

Niskanen said on Saturday in Koillismaa that he will compete in the World Cup more in sprints than before, because “the World Cup does not reward success, but participation”.

On Sunday, the person from Kuopio stated that he will hardly participate in the Ruka World Cup sprint next Friday.

– It feels funny if you don’t ski sprints in Ruka. You could imagine that Ruka’s track is one where Iivo can sprint or ski on it in some way.

About the final subject

The most positive surprises of the Ruka Suomen Cup weekend were the sprint specialists Lauri Vuorinen and Tiia Olkkonen.

Vuorinen won on Saturday and was fifth in the traditional ten. The difference in favor of Niskasene was 47.8 seconds.

– The man is really fine.

If skiing plays next Friday at the opening of the World Cup, a place in the sprint final of the best six is ​​a realistic goal.

– When a sprinter is in shape, he knows how to avoid bad spots in the heats. When others slowed down on Saturday, Lauri hit the bow. With Olos, he did not go to the wrong places and avoided crashes.

Big surprise

The 23-year-old Olkkonen, who has been yo-yoing between the World Cup and the national sprint group for the past few years, had the best normal distance race of his career in the Finnish Cup on Sunday in Kuusamo. He was fifth in the competition.

– He is technically good at skiing and has a body well suited to sprinting. For example, in Vuokatti’s Suomen Cup at the beginning of the season, on a section of the track where others were braking, he was able to make a difference of a few meters.

The previous career’s best normal distance finish was sixth out of the traditional top ten at the Finnish Cup in Vantaa last February, but the competition in question lacked a whole lot of Finland’s best skiers. Ruka was attended by all of Finland’s leading women.

– Tiia moved to Rovaniemi and got a coach to help her Janne Hyypän. I believe that this has been a significant help to the athlete.

Very successful

In Jylhä’s opinion, it was the most international performance of the weekend Krista Pärmäkoski winning ski on Sunday.

– The rhythm of the skiing and the general performance seemed good. The difference backwards was considerable.

Pärmäkoski defeated Kerttu Niskanen with 18.9 seconds.

– With such a performance, Krista will fight for a place on the podium next Saturday at the World Cup in Ruka.

For the first time in the history of the Finnish Cup, the competition preceding the World Cup in Ruka was held in Ruka. The Cup has been organized since the 2011–12 season.

– It’s a very good thing that we finally acted like this. The weekend competitions gave the most realistic possible picture of the situation of Finnish skiers.