Camilla Richardsson, who held the marathon and half marathon Finnish records before Alisa Vainio’s results, has not competed since August 2024.
Finland’s top runner Camilla Richardsson has disappeared both from competitions and from the public eye. Photo from August 2024. PASI LEISMA
– I am not doing interviews at the moment. I now focus on my own work without external pressure.
That’s a marathon and half marathon former SE woman by Camilla Richardsson The answer to the interview request provided by the Finnish Sports Federation.
Vaasalaikasvatti has disappeared both from running competitions and from the public like ashes in the wind.
The last time a woman competed was almost two years ago, according to the data of the International Association of Athletics Federations (WA) and the Statistical Office: on August 11, 2024, in the Paris Olympic Marathon, she came in 65th place with a time of 2:38:02.
The woman has not put on running shoes, because she belongs to the Sports Association’s top coaching group, Team Finland, and she participated in the association’s training camp in Portugal in April-May. In January, he was at a training camp in South Africa.
Big changes
Camilla Richardsson feels bad after the Olympic marathon in Paris. PDO
Richardsson, 32, has seen big changes in his everyday life in less than a couple of years. After the 2024 season, he ended the coaching collaboration Jukka Keskisalon with and recruits as his new pilot Moritz Keinath35. The Swiss is an endurance runner, running coach and entrepreneur.
Herra’s record times in the marathon (2:23:54) and half marathon (1:09:58) are almost identical to Richardsson’s records (2:24:38 and 1:09:54).
Keinath says on social media that he met Richardsson for the first time in St. Moritz in the summer of 2024.
– The previous coach wasn’t bad, Iltalehti’s athletics expert smiles Arto Bryggare.
– With this new one, they can go for a run together, says the man from Berlin.
The Finn has spent a lot of time in his coach’s home country.
In the spring, the sports equipment manufacturer Salomon said that Richardsson has signed a running shoe contract with the French brand that fosters community.
A lot of sorrows
In the last decade, the 3,000-meter steeplechase was the Finn’s main sport. Picture from the World Championships in Doha in 2019. Pasi Liesimaa
In the last decade, Richardsson burst onto the scene of the athletics nation as a strong hurdler. After several health problems, the woman moved to smooth track trips from the 2022 season. At the European Championships in Munich 2022, the Finn was ninth at 10,000 meters and a year later at the World Championships in Budapest, he was fifteenth. They are impressive achievements for a Finnish endurance runner of the 21st century.
In 2024, Richardsson said that the marathon has been selected as the main sport. He has run three queen races in his career: in 2021 in Valencia (2:30:45), in 2023 in Valencia (2:24:38) and in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 (2:38:02).
Last spring, a member of Esbo IF took part in a 17-kilometer running race in Kloten, Switzerland, and won with a time of 58.32.6. The event was not officialized by WA, so therefore there was no trace of it in the Finn’s results data bank.
Richardsson would have had a place in last season’s World Cup marathon in Tokyo, but he had to withdraw from the race machine in Japan due to a foot injury.
– Returning after a long competitive break is a huge risk and challenge in every sport. A break always indicates that there is an injury, says Bryggare.
– On the other hand, in endurance running, a long competition break may not be as difficult as in many other athletics, the expert adds.
There is no information whether the Finn will compete in the summer of 2026. On Friday, he uploaded a link to social media marketing the 13th-14th in Paris. June’s Gravelenza running event.
– If the goal is the EC marathon in Birmingham on August 16, he won’t have time to run a marathon before then. The ranking points entitling to a place in the European Championships should be collected from the half marathon.
SEs for Vainio
Richardsson was fifteenth in the decathlon for the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. PASI LEISMA
During Richardsson’s “disappearance trick”. Alisa Vainio has taken over SE results for the marathon (2.20.39) and half marathon (1.09.30).
– Of course, I hope that there will be two Finns at the EC marathon in Birmingham. However, Richardsson should be in the best shape of his career to be able to challenge Vainiot, Bryggare states.
