The Finland-Sweden international match will be played this weekend at the Olympic Stadium.
Tuomo Salonen works as the Finnish Sports Federation’s top sports coaching manager. PASI LEISMA
On Monday, Finland named the team for the coming weekend’s match against Sweden at the Olympic Stadium.
Coaching manager of the Finnish Sports Association Tuomo Salonen according to the whole seems good. The achievements of Finnish athletes in the European Championships and afterwards have brought credit.
– You can say that we have a team capable of striking. In particular, the team has a fighting spirit, strong enthusiasm and desire to compete against Sweden.
Finland’s men last won a national match in 2018. The women, on the other hand, won in 2015, so Sweden has a winning streak.
– The points are zero-zero, on the track and at the performance venues it is decided. Statistics or a paper match won’t solve it. Fairly even starting positions, especially when you take into account that Sweden has such a winning streak in the background. Now there are opportunities and we will attack them.
– During the weekend, there will certainly be equal fighting pairs and struggles together, if in another sport. Those are the evenly matched competitions that decide which way the national match will turn, Salonen continues.
Regression
The competition season has been tough and long for the athletes. Some of the athletes have fit both the World Cup and European Championships into the season. Some, on the other hand, have been ill since the European Championships.
However, according to Salonen, there have been no difficult situations in building the team.
– There are always open situations when the season is long. Compared to that, we have had a lot of desire and joy for the international match. The overall outlook is good, but we are already in autumn, so we will monitor until the end and react if necessary.
In particular, the absence of one athlete from the list catches the eye. Oliver Helander had to miss the European Championships due to an injury, and he will not compete in the Sweden match either.
In the men’s javelin, Finland is represented by recent European Championship bronze medalist Lassi Etelätalo, Toni Keränen mixed Teo Takala.
– Everything went quite well until the Kaleva Games in Joensuu, but then Oliver had to miss the European Championships. It was a shame in terms of Oliver’s performance, but we have a tough trio selected for the men’s javelin and there would have been more names there in really good shape. A very competitive team can be assembled and there are still more in the reserves.
– Hopefully next year we will also see from Oliver the same dimensions that we have seen from him at his best, Salonen concludes.
Oliver Helander also has to miss the international match against Sweden. PASI LEISMA