Neste Oil Rally Finland and Olympics dominate sporting weekend

After a week, Finland's medal tally remains stubbornly blank

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This year's Neste Oil Rally Finland, one of the blue riband events in the World Rally Championship calendar, is held on the gravel roads around Jyväskylä this weekend, taking some of the local attention away from the London Olympics.
      It is probably all to the good that eyes are not being cast quite so carefully on what happens to the 56 Finnish Olympic athletes, as thus far they have not added to the tally of medals won by Finns in the past (and that is a great many: measured by head of population, since the country first took part in the Olympics in 1908, Finland is arguably the most successful nation at the games in terms of hardware collected).
     
But that was then. This time around the bag is so far empty, although there will at least be a Finnish Olympic Champion in action on Saturday, when Satu Mäkelä-Nummela defends the title she won in Beijing in the women's trap event.
      She was the country's only gold medallist in 2008, when Finland managed four medals (1-1-2).
      Today also sees the start of the athletics programme, while the swimming events - where Finns have been conspicuously absent from the finals - are winding up at the weekend.
      Our representatives in the tennis and badminton competitions have been eliminated, albeit that Ville Lång spectacularly managed to take a set off the top seed and world No.2 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in his opening round encounter.
     
Although the Finnish Olympic team has set itself a target of three medals and six athletes getting into the points, hopes that they will meet this objective are not exactly sky-high.
      The men's javelin could become the main attraction (as so often before) in the track & field department, and there is still a chance that the relatively strong Finnish contingent taking part in the various sailing competitions could deliver something.
      Or perhaps it will be up to Satu Mäkelä-Nummela once more.
      She captured a nation four years ago with her Annie Oakley accuracy with a shotgun, setting an Olympic record in the process.
      We'll have to hope against hope she doesn't get held up in traffic and miss the start.


Links:
  Neste Oil Rally Finland 2012
  WRC
  London Olympics: Finland
  Finland at the Olympics (Wikipedia)

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