Hannu Manninen wraps up World Cup title in Lahti

F1 ace Mika Häkkinen tries his hand at Janne Ahonen's sport

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The Finnish stars of the weekend's ski-jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic Combined World Cup competitions in Lahti were Hannu Manninen and Matti Hautamäki.
      On Friday, Manninen wrapped up his second consecutive World Cup title well before the end of the season with a cool win in the sprint event. He went on to take 3rd place in the normal competition on Saturday, producing another trademark performance as he jumped to only 24th place and then skied like the wind to hunt down the competitors in front of him.
     
On the big ski-jumping hill on Sunday, Matti Hautamäki took his second World Cup win of a season that started rather slowly for him but is now firing on all cylinders. He rather stole the thunder of local hero Janne Ahonen, who could finish no better than fourth, and therefore could not sew up his World Cup title quite yet. He will have his next opportunity on Wednesday in Kuopio, when he needs only to avoid disaster to put himself in an unassailable position.
      Full details of the competitions can be had from the FIS pages (see external link below).
     
A total of around 73,000 people turned out to watch the traditional Salpausselkä Games, lured by good weather and the presence of Ahonen and Manninen in particular. The figure was slightly better than the organisers' target of 70,000, but still fell well short of the record of 119,200 from 1992.
     
One competition in Lahti that is less likely to be reported elsewhere was that between Janne Ahonen and former Formula One World Champion Mika Häkkinen. The two men exchanged helmets for a day, and Häkkinen pluckily climbed the big hill in Lahti and sat himself down on the bar that the ski-jumpers rest on before launching themselves into space.
      Häkkinen, who was taking part in a programme for a German television company, was suitably humbled and impressed by the experience, but wisely chose to put discretion before valour, and the only jumps he took were on the simulator in the Ski Museum down at ground level. His best leap of 111 metres would not have got him very close to the podium.
      Ahonen could actually claim to have the edge in the light-hearted discipline-swapping contest, since he is also an accomplished drag-racing driver, and won the Nordic Drag Racing Series Comp Championship last year.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Lahti may lose hosting of cross-country skiing World Cup events (4.3.2005)

Links:
  FIS

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