Hanna-Maria Seppälä fourth in 100 metres freestyle final

Juha Hirvi 7th in rifle event; Kyra Kyrklund makes promising start in dressage

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Early on Friday morning, Hanna-Maria Seppälä finished just outside the medals in her main event in Beijing, the women’s 100 metres freestyle.
      Seppälä’s time of 53.97 was good enough only for fourth place. In the opening heats she had set a new Finnish record of 53.60.
     
The gold medal went to Germany’s Brita Steffen, in a new Olympic record time of 53.12.
      The current world record holder Lisbeth Trickett of Australia, who had to contend with one of the outside lanes owing to some less-than-stellar performances in the heats and semi-final, was just four hundredths of a second back in the silver-medal spot. Natalie Coughlin of the United States took third in 53.39.
     
Steffen’s victory was not such a huge surprise, as she had performed well in the earlier rounds, and last Sunday she had set a short-lived new Olympic record (53.38) when swimming the opening German leg of the women’s 4 x 100 metres freestyle relay.
      However, it was the way she did it in the indivdual event that caught the eye. Steffen made the turn plumb last, nearly a second behind Trickett, but over the second 50 metres she fairly flew past her rivals and hit the front when it mattered.
     
Whilst it is always an unenviable experience to finish in fourth, just off the podium, Seppälä acknowledged immediately that the gap to bronze - more than half a second - was not within her grasp.
      She would have had to clip an additional 0.20 seconds and more off her personal best time, and the opening heat and semi-final had already taken their toll.
      Despite her disappointment at missing out, Seppälä gave herself full marks for the showing in Beijing.
     
As in previous races, she did not make the best of starts. Matters were complicated somewhat by the competitors’ being kept waiting a long time for the gun, but Seppälä said her concentration did not waver.
      She is only the third Finnish woman ever to feature in an Olympic swimming final.
      Seppälä might take some small satisfaction from the fact that she reversed the placings with Marleen Veldhuis of The Netherlands, who took the European Championships gold medal ahead of her in Eindhoven earlier this year.
      Veldhuis started fast, but faded to finish sixth in 54.21.
     
Later today, Seppälä will take part in the 50 metres freestyle heats. There are 12 heats and she will swim in the last of them, at around 14:00 Finnish time.
      Seppälä’s training regimen has been geared very much towards the 100 metres event, and if she is able to progress to the semis in the sprint, then as far as she is concerned, the games will have gone rather better than anticipated.
     
In other Finnish Olympic news, Olli-Pekka Karjalainen progressed to the final of the men's hammer competition early on Friday morning, with a throw of 77.07 metres.
      It was enough to put him in eighth place of the 12 qualifiers.
      Only five men threw over the automatic qualifying mark of 78 metres. The best of the bunch was Hungary's Krisztian Pars with 80.07.
      The final will be held on Sunday, at around 14:00 Finnish time.
     
Also in finals action on Sunday will be Sanna Stén and Minna Nieminen, who came through their women's double sculls semi-final in good shape, finishing just 0.04 seconds behind the Dutch winners.
      The Dutch pair also posted the fastest time of all the semi-finalists.
      Stén and Nieminen have taken the long route to the final, as they also competed in the repechage round after finishing only fourth in their opening heat.
     
Marksman Juha Hirvi, competing in his sixth Olympics, finished seventh in the final of the men's 50 metre rifle prone competition.
      His total of 698.5 points left him two points short of the bronze medal spot.
      Henri Häkkinen, who earlier won a bronze medal in the 10 metre air rifle event, was down the field in 47th, and naturally did not make the final.
     
The combination of Kyra Kyrklund and her gelding Max made a promising start in the dressage.
      They placed 6th in the Individual Grand Prix. The top 25 riders (including all tied for 25th place) after the Grand Prix test will go through to the Grand Prix Special on Saturday, when the scores will be set back to zero.
      Kyrklund, 56, is another competing in her sixth Olympics. Max, on the other hand, is a first-timer at this level. The horse had earlier caused a few furried brows by ruinning a temperature, but performed excellently when it counted.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hanna-Maria Seppälä swims into 100 metres freestyle final (14.8.2008)

Links:
  Beijing 2008: Hanna-Maria Seppälä
  Hanna-Maria Seppälä on the Finnish team site

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