Mikko Ronkainen delights in silver medal from freestyle moguls

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Mikko Ronkainen collected Finland's fourth medal from the winter Olympics in Torino on Wednesday, winning silver in the men's freestyle moguls at Sauze d'Oulx.
      The 27-year-old two-time World Champion fell only 0.15 points short of the gold medal, which went to 21-year-old Dale Begg-Smith of Australia. The bronze medal was taken by Toby Dawson of the United States.
      Ronkainen was only 13th in qualification, and so was among the earlier competitors to go down the hill in the final. His score of 26.62 was comfortably enough to put him into the lead, and he had to wait at the finish while others attempted to assault his score. It was an unfamiliar and nerve-wracking situation for the Finn, who has often been among the last to compete.
      One by one, the challengers fell by the wayside, but Dale Begg-Smith was up to the task. Ronkainen was faster and also scored better on his two jumps, but the Australian gave a flawless performance over the moguls. Ronkainen was not in the least disappointed, and delighted in his first Olympic medal.
     
The silver medal continues a fine tradition of Finnish hardware in this discipline from the Olympics and World Championships.
      In Salt Lake City Janne Lahtela took gold, and in Nagano Lahtela grabbed the silver and Sami Mustonen took bronze.
      Mustonen was also the silver medallist at the 2005 World Championships, which were held in Finland, while Mikko Ronkainen himself triumphed in 2001 and 2003.
     
On the rink, Finland's ice hockey players started their campaign with a comfortable 5-0 victory (1-0, 4-0, 0-0) over Switzerland. The damage was already done with a quartet of goals in the second period, and the team then cruised through the remaining 20 minutes on half-throttle.
      Nevertheless, this was an important pipe-opener for the players, many of whom had only just flown in from their NHL teams and were still somewhat jet-lagged and short of practice as a unit.
      The coaches will have been particularly pleased at Finland's effectiveness on the powerplay (four of the five goals came with the Swiss playing short-handed) and at the fact that the forwards Teemu Selänne (2+1) and Olli Jokinen (2+1) immediately got on the score-sheet and showed they are both in good shape.
      Team Finland play Olympic hosts Italy later today, and the tougher nuts of the Czech Republic and Canada await at the weekend.


Links:
  Mikko Ronkainen (FIS)
  Torino 2006 Official Site

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