Viivi Lehikoinen was angry about the grant – 10,000 euros is not enough

Viivi Lehikoinen does not understand the criteria for the distribution of the grant. PDO

A number of Finland’s top general athletes were sadly left without a grant in the sports grant list published by the Ministry of Education and Culture on Wednesday.

For example Annimari Korte, Nooralotta Neziri, Samuli Samuelsson and Samuel Purola were left empty-handed.

In addition Reetta Hurske and Viivi Lehikoinen received only half of the grant of 10,000 euros from OKM.

In the case of Kortte and Nezir, it was probably that their season was cut short by injuries. Samuelsson and Purola, on the other hand, faced the mercilessly tough international level of sprinting, which made it difficult to meet the scholarship criteria.

Athletes as coal

Samuelsson expressed his displeasure with OKM’s decision by posting a meme on his Instagram stories. Lehikoinen, on the other hand, told Iltalehti about his feelings via text message.

– It would be great if the grant was not a reward for success, as the decision-makers regularly deny, Lehikoinen wrote.

In the runner’s opinion, the decisions show that there has been no real attempt to evaluate the things mentioned in the criteria, such as the results of a larger sample and the development of results.

– The individual result is decisive, even if the international level of that day is weaker. Within athletics alone, putting field and running sports in the same basket causes problems, because there are big differences in the international level and scope of the sports, Lehikoinen communicated.

Lehikoinen ran in the 400-meter hurdles EC final in Munich last summer and improved the Finnish record for the distance on several occasions.

“It doesn’t matter”

Lehikoinen’s manager Inka Kärkkäinen was waiting for a bigger grant for his hedge account specifically citing “upward and steady performance”.

– Viivi is one of the very few track and field athletes whose level of results last year was such that they could have qualified for the Paris Olympics. There were only six such track and field athletes in Finland, Kärkkäinen points out.

– It didn’t matter, even though Viivi has been able to take a significant step in his career. It has not affected practically anything.

Kärkkäinen says that he read about OKM’s decision on Tuesday evening before going to bed. It was not a good solution. The positive signals about the grant that he had heard earlier crumbled in seconds.

– There was a bit of a message from the union that we thought we would get positive news in connection with these decisions, the manager laments.

Spear got money

Kärkkäinen also raises an issue that Lehikoinen criticizes in OKM’s decisions.

– Only certain success is rewarded, although it is regularly pointed out that the grant is not a prize. They have created a certain limit – probably that of being in the points standings of the World Cup. Nothing else matters.

There is one detail in the grant criteria that bothers runners in particular. The international level of running sports is wider than that of field sports, and it is not fully reflected in the amount of the scholarship.

– I don’t want to belittle other athletes, but these decisions do reflect the fact that decision-making is still extremely narrow-minded, Kärkkäinen says.

– The recipients of the grant included, for example, six male javelin throwers. Even though there were a couple of junkies there, there can only be three throwers in a value competition.

Big expenses

Lehikoinen was disappointed with the amount of money he received also because he trains for long parts of the year abroad. Financial support would be necessary when there are as many as 200 travel days per year.

A Finnish runner trains with Dutch national team runners, a Swiss one Laurent Meuwlyn in the top group.

– I would dare to say that Viiv has the biggest budget for training among Finnish track and field athletes. In that sense, any grant would have been absolutely welcome, says Kärkkäinen.

– Viivi does exactly the same things as those athletes from top countries who have extremely large support from the state and the sports federation. When he tries to keep up with that group, the costs are insanely high.