Day Five continues the Finnish disappointments in Athens
Swimmers eliminated, shot-putters well below par
The fifth day of the Athens Olympics only served to lengthen the faces of Finnish sports administrators and fans. There was little to get enthusiastic about, except among the sailors.
In the Olympic pool, the Finnish swimming favourite Jani Sievinen failed to get past the first round in his #1 event, the men’s 200m individual medley. Surprisingly enough, Sievinen, who was a silver medallist in Atlanta and is attending his fourth Olympics, could finish only 20th overall. His time of 2.02.79 was 68 hundredths of a second too slow to progress to the semi-finals. He was disappointed and explained that his tactics had been to make a relaxed performance, which this time was not good enough. Though he finished third in his heat, the semi-finalists were decided on times, not placings.
The reigning world champion Hanna-Maria Seppälä also failed to progress to the final. She was twelfth in the semifinals of the 100m individual freestyle swimming on Wednesday. Her training period was disturbed by ‘flu and some problems with her back.
The Finnish shot-putters Tepa Reinikainen and Ville Tiisanoja were disappointed because they both were eliminated from the finals, too. However, they did not wish to give any of the traditional excuses for their poor performance. The winner was Juri Belonog from Ukraine. Finland had had some hopes of success in this event - the Sydney Olympic champion was Arsi Harju. Though Harju was named to the Finnish squad, he did not consider he was in the right shape to compete, and he withdrew.
On the brighter side, Sari Multala held onto her position among the front-runners in the women’s Europe class sailing after winning the second of her two starts on Wednesday. She is currently in fourth spot in a very tight field. Five races remain in the competition, and the battle for the medals is still wide-open, with at least seven women in with a chance of gold.
Previously in HS International Edition:
Sari Multala rises to fourth place; four Finns join spectators
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 19.8.2004 - TODAY |
Day Five continues the Finnish disappointments in Athens
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