Anssi Koivuranta over the moon at FIS Nordic Combined World Cup title

“I cannot take it all in. This sensation is absolutely insane.”

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“I cannot take it all in. This sensation is absolutely insane.” From Norway’s Vikersund an overjoyed but dog-tired young man travelled back to Helsinki on Sunday.
     
“I cannot take it all in. This sensation is absolutely insane, as is the achievement. What an incredible feeling”, Anssi Koivuranta sighed when interviewed over his mobile phone as the newly-crowned FIS Nordic Combined World Cup overall winner.
      “On a scale from one to ten I give myself a twelve”, Koivuranta continued.
      During this season Koivuranta capped seven World Cup events, came in second in four competitions, and was third also four times. In the season’s 23 events, his weakest result was 13^th .
      At the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic, however, the 20-year-old Koivuranta only managed two disappointing fourth place finishes before a bout of flu forced him to retire from the final event. He also missed out on the team relay competition.
     
For all practical purposes, Koivuranta secured his World Cup title already on Saturday, by winning the season’s penultimate competition in Vikersund. After Saturday’s event, 99 points separated Koivuranta from his closest rival Magnus Moan of Norway.
      In order for the Norwegian to clinch the title, Moan would have had to win Sunday’s season-ending event and Koivuranta finish 30th or worse, scoring just one point or less.
      This did not happen. Koivuranta came home 8th, while Moen finished 13th. In the end, 111 points separated the two in Koivuranta’s favour.
     
”And now you may congratulate me”, Koivuranta sighed.
      On Saturday he had still stolidly refused to receive any congratulatory messages, although it was really a done deal.
      “The Sunday skiing was pure enjoyment. I simply could not whip myself into a higher gear. The good feeling just crept in after a really long and hard season.”
      During the season, Koivuranta won 12 ski-jumping segments. In Vikersund’s season-concluding event, Koivuranta was fourth after the hill.
     
"On the hill I was the most nervous I have been this season. Ski-jumping is such a delicate event. Anything can happen.”
      Koivuranta is the third Finn to clinch the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup title. Samppa Lajunen was only 17 years old when he first took home the trophy in 1997. Lajunen repeated the accomplishment in 2000.
      Hannu Manninen, in turn, was the supremo four times in a row between 2004 and 2007.
      “I do not believe I can keep winning titles consecutively. Hannu’s achievement is utterly incomprehensible.”
     
Koivuranta’s season is not quite over yet. The new champion is about to realise a dream that he has cherished for years.
      He will next enter the FIS World Cup concluding ski-jumping event on the ski-flying hill of Planica, Slovenia, as a test jumper.
      “I have to approach the task humbly and respecting the giant hill. If I could reach 200 metres that would be outstanding”, said Koivuranta, who has previously soared to the 150-metre mark on the large hill at Ruka in Finland. Much of his success this season has been down to his prodigious skills as a ski-jumper, and in a sense it was hardly a surprise when he bushwhacked the Finnish specialist jumpers to win the national title this year on the big hill in Lahti. Previously he struggled somewhat on the ski-tracks, but now he has the perfect Nordic Combined package, and a World Cup crystal globe to prove it.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Koivuranta caps yet another Nordic Combined World Cup event in Schonach (5.1.2009)
  Liberec round-up: Finns collect eight medals, somewhat unevenly (2.3.2009)
  Liberec: Saarinen adds to medals haul, but Koivuranta and Olli miss out (23.2.3009)

Links:
  Anssi Koivuranta on the FIS pages
  Anssi Koivuranta (Wikipedia)

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