Finland returned to the winners’ table four years late, writes Santtu Silvennoinen from Munich.
Jorma Kemppainen explained to the media about Finland’s miserable result at the European Championships four years ago in Berlin. Pasi Liesimaa/IL
In the spring of 2018, the Sports Association’s head of coaching, Jorma Kemppainen, announced that Finland would return to the “winners’ table” at the European Championships in Berlin.
The August 2018 value competition was the ugly collapse of the blue and whites and the run of the mill boss.
The team returned to Finland without medals and with only three points, when Antti Ruuskanen and the men’s relay team were sixth and Topi Raitanen was eighth.
Due to internal and external pressure, Kemppainen was pushed into a less visible role in the Sports Confederation.
In the first European championships after Berlin, Finland returned to the winners’ table.
– In Berlin, the current successful people were at a stage, especially Wilma Murto applied herself. At the top of Finland, there was a place to show in Munich, and the top showed. At the European level, a big step forward was taken, summarizes Iltalehti’s athletics expert Arto Bryggare.
Finland had 68 athletes in Bavaria, of which 59 competed in the individual event. Five athletes were only involved in the relays and four alternates nominated for the relays did not make it to the track.
The team had a dozen medal hopefuls and almost twenty athletes seeking a place in the semi-finals or finals of the field events, but about half competed at the wrong level. In the hurdles and road sports, among other things, we saw unabashedly modest Finnish performances.
– The big picture of Finnish athletics is quite gray, although great things have happened in women compared to, for example, my active career, Bryggare states.
Wilma Murto returned the Finns to the winners’ table. PASI LEISMA
At the World Championships in Eugene in July, Europe’s collective diving cycle became the topic of conversation. The only country from the old continent that reached the top ten of the medal table was Poland (eighth).
For example, Germany was in crisis in Eugene with only two medals, but in Bavaria they grabbed the second most medals after Great Britain.
On the running tracks, Europe is constantly missing more laps, but in the field sports, the global development is not yet that significant.
– At next year’s World Championships, Germany has exactly two medal favorites: Malaika Mihambo in the women’s long and the men’s javelin, Bryggare lines up.
Perseus Karlström walked three times within 38 days to the medals in his four starts. EPA / AOP
The Swedish canines Armand Duplantis and Perseus Karlström are in the race for medals.
Within 38 days, Karlström won three medals in four prestigious race starts. It’s a laughing matter in walking, which is considered an endurance sport.
The royal distance of 50 kilometers was shortened to 35 kilometers for this season and 20 kilometers remained in the race program, so the prestigious race distances are tårta på tårta.
20 kilometers are about five seconds harder than the anaerobic threshold, and 35 kilometers are roughly 2-3 seconds above the “sub-threshold”.
For a sport struggling with credibility, it would be wisest to have only one start in the value race program. It could be the length of a marathon.