Finnish cheerleaders win silver medal in World Championships in Helsinki

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The Finnish national team was highly successful in winning the silver medal in the Cheer All Female category of the 4th Cheerleading World Championships in Helsinki on November 17th and 18th.
      Defending their title, the Japanese team took home the gold medal with an almost perfect performance. The bronze medal went to Norway.
     
This was the first time when the Finnish Cheerleading Federation gathered together a national team to represent Finland in a major competition.
      "This team got a lot more points than the teams of various athletic clubs representing Finland had done before", said Niina Sillanpää, one of the coaches of the national team.
      In November 2006, a total of 22 athletes were chosen out of some 50 contestants at a qualifying competition, in order to assemble a national team. In March the group had their first camp in the Vierumäki sports centre, north of Lahti, and since the beginning of August the team has been practising regularly four to six times a week.
      The national team included athletes aged 16 to 21 from eight different sports clubs. All chosen athletes moved to the capital, and part of the team studied in the Mäkelänrinne sports high school, while some of them had a job.
      The outstanding choreography of the silver medal team was designed by the U.S. top coach Jomo Thompson.
     
Apart from the national team, other Finnish teams also achieved success at the World Championships. The Tampere-based Dream Team finished second in the Cheer Dance category, while Funky Team from Helsinki were third in the Cheer Mixed series, being the best European outfit in this category, behind Japan and Taiwan (Chinese Taipei).
      Teams from a total of 11 countries took part in the various categories of competition. Slovenia grabbed the gold in a closely contested Cheer Dance contest, scoring only two points more than the Finns, with Norway close behind.


Links:
  The 4th Cheerleading World Championships in Helsinki

Helsingin Sanomat