Hanna-Maria Seppälä swims into 100 metres freestyle final

Finland’s main swimming medal hope at the Beijing Olympics, Hanna-Maria Seppälä, continued her good form in the semi-finals of the women’s 100 metres freestyle.
      Early on Thursday morning she qualified quite comfortably for Friday’s final, which will be raced at 6:00 am local Finnish time.
      Seppälä came home in 53.84, recording the third-fastest time of the two semis, shared with China’s Yingwen Zhu, and she was second in her heat, just three hundredths of a second behind winner Marleen Veldhuis of The Netherlands. The fastest time overall was posted by Natalie Coughlin of the United States, who touched at 53.70.
     
Finnish spirits had been raised earlier as Seppälä sailed through her first-round heat on Wednesday in a new national record time of 53.60, clipping 0.40 seconds of the old national best, which was also in her name.
      She was the fastest of all the competitors in the eight heats, though naturally not everyone chooses to show their hand in the early rounds.
      For instance, the holder of the world record Lisbeth Trickett (Australia) recorded times of 53.99 and 54.10, and was indeed a little fortunate to even make the final, as without the disqualification of China’s Jiaying Pang she would have finished ninth overall in the semi-final and would have been out of the reckoning.
     
Even so, Seppälä regards Trickett as the favourite for the final. The Australian clocked a time of 52.88 in Sydney in March of this year. She also won this particular event at the World Championships in Melbourne last year, when Seppälä went out in the semi-finals.
      Seppälä got off to a slowish start in the semi-final, but by the turn she was into second place and came home powerfully to ensure her place in the final.
      So far, Seppälä's only major victory was a shock win in the 100 metres freestyle at the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona. The 23-year-old from Espoo also took a silver medal earlier this year at the European Championships, finishing behind Marleen Veldhuis.
     
On other fronts, the Finnish team in Beijing has not had much to cheer since the two medals won in the shooting on Monday.
      It looks increasingly unlikely that any medals will be forthcoming from the sailing events now in progress, and Jukka Keskisalo, the European Champion in the 3,000 metres steeplechase from two years ago, now has a large question-mark over his entire involvement at the Olympics.
      Keskisalo hit a hurdle in training earlier this week and has injured both thighs. The race is on to get him in shape for Saturday’s qualifying heats.
      The oldest member of the Finnish team Kyra Kyrklund will be in action later today, as she and her mount Max take part in the Individual dressage Grand Prix.
      Kyrklund is competing in her sixth Olympic Games. She has finished fifth on three previous occasions, but has yet to win a medal.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Satu Mäkelä-Nummela wins gold in Beijing women´s trap event (11.8.2008)

Links:
  Finnish team in Beijing
  Hanna-Maria Seppälä on the Finnish team pages
  2008 Olympics: Hanna-Maria Seppälä
  2008 Olympics: Kyra Kyrklund