Finnkampen brings narrow win for men and crushing defeat for women

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The traditional two-day athletics meeting between Finland and Sweden, held this year in Gothenburg, offered much more for the hosts than it did for the visitors. The Finnish men just managed to squeak home by a four-point margin (203-199), despite being as many as 21 points ahead after the first day, but the Swedish women overwhelmed their Finnish sisters yet again to win 219-189.
      Curiously enough, on the female side, it was the Finns who led at halfway, and even with just four events to go, but the Swedes inflicted crushing maximum-points defeats in the shot put, the high jump, and 100 metres hurdles to sweep past to victory.
      It was the seventh successive triumph for the Swedish women, and the fourth in a row by such a convincing margin.
     
The future does not look any brighter: the Finnish girls lost their fight by a staggering 51 points, and the boys fared little better - they went down by 46 points, 122 to 76.
      If this is translated into the same kind of Swedish dominance among the adults a few years hence, it could pose a threat to the entire event: few would be interested in such a one-sided competition.
      The Finland-Sweden track and field meeting is already a rarity on the sporting calendar. Such competitions were once commonplace, but they have been usurped by Grand Prix events where athletes run more against the clock than head-to-head against each other, and where prize-money and gold ingots are more important than national pride.
     
Amidst a sea of rather ordinary performances in Gothenburg (at least by comparison with the 100 metres world record set by Asafa Powell in Italy on Sunday), one oddity stood out.
      In the long jump, the Finnish men's captain Tommi Evilä, who was unable to compete in the Osaka World Championships because of injury, produced a prodigious wind-assisted leap. He recorded 8.41 metres, which would have comfortably eclipsed the old Finnish record but for the 3.8 m/s following wind.
      One who did go to Osaka - but possibly wished he had not - was Frantz Kruger in the men's discus. Kruger was in much better shape against Sweden, however, and won his event handily with a best throw of 64.20 metres. The discus was the only event on Sunday in which the Finnish men scored maximum points.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Honours just about even at Finnkampen athletics match (28.8.2006)

Links:
  Finnkampen (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat