Hanna-Maria Seppälä was the undisputed queen of the Finnish swimming contingent at the European Short Course Championships in Helsinki over the weekend. Seppälä successfully defended her 100 metres medley title from Trieste last year, and also collected a bronze medal in the 50 metres freestyle.
Seppälä clawed her way to the 100 metre medley win from third place at the halfway stage, and she finished 0.05 seconds ahead of Ukraine's Ganna Dzerkal, despite tying up badly in the closing freestyle leg. Her time of 1:00.45 was a new Finnish record.
On Sunday she brought home Finland's third medal of these championships with a feisty performance - in a borrowed swimsuit - in the 50 metres freestyle. She had to resort to borrowing an outfit after splitting her own in the 50 metres semi-final earlier in the day, but this did not prevent another Finnish best time of 24.65, behind Marleen Veldhuis of Holland and Sweden's Therese Alshammar. Seppälä also finished in 4th spot in the 100 metres freestyle on Friday evening.
Although it was Hanna-Maria Seppälä and the men's medley relay team who collected the silverware from the Helsinki competitions, most of the limelight on Sunday night was taken by Jani Sievinen, Finland's most successful international swimmer of all time.
Sievinen retired from international competition at the Helsinki event, and his swansong was watched by a large and enthusiastic crowd. There were emotional scenes all round after he finished in 5th place in the final of the 100 metres medley.
