Author Juha Vuorinen told about his summer experiences at the athletics championships in Orimattila.
Juha Vuorinen spends his summer in Finland working on his new book. Riku Isokoski
A perhaps somewhat surprising name was found in the stands of the track and field competition held in Orimattila recently, because the writer Juha Vuorinen there was a clear reason to be following the events.
This reason was a young runner Joonas Kumpulainenwho lives next door to the Vuorinen family in Tuusula and is a good friend of the writer’s sons.
– We have followed his career “wide open” – an absolutely amazing guy, praised Vuorinen.
The 16-year-old Kumpulainen won the under-19 boys’ 800-meter run on a beautiful summer evening with a time of 1:55.37. It was his new record.
Kumpulainen holds, among other things, the Finnish record for under-14s from that trip two years ago. He is also the youngest Finn ever to break the two-minute mark in 800 meters.
Versatile sportsman
Vuorinen says that the performances of a runner he knows personally have aroused in him even more interest in running sports. However, he follows sports on a wide scale.
– Of course, my favorite sports are still basketball and tennis, Vuorinen says.
– At one point I was also a passionate follower of Spanish football, but that has become less so now.
Vuorinen photographed last fall with his dog Hilma. INKA SOVERI
The reason for this is logical, because Vuorinen and his family have lived in southern Spain in Andalusia for several years.
– The football culture there is absolutely incomprehensible. Every small village has its own small stadiums, says Vuorinen.
A tragicomic twist
Vuorinen is going back to Spain for a while in the fall, but this summer will be spent working on a new book in his home country, which he says he is writing “absolutely crazy”.
– I had a small problem with it when I had already written 400,000 characters.
Because of the war of aggression started by Russia, Vuorinen had to change his original idea about the events of the book.
– I had written a Russian oligarch as the main villain, and then there was a small twist. I had to start writing the plot a bit again.
– Tragicomic in a way, but now I noticed when writing again that the book will be much funnier. Fate must have had an effect, Vuorinen laughs.