No change in Finnkampen pecking-order: Finnish men win, women lose again

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The traditional annual two-day Finland vs. Sweden athletics meet, known as Finnkampen, produced little in the way of surprises at the weekend.
      Just as for the past three years, the Finnish men emerged victorious, while the women crashed to their eighth successive defeat.
      For the record, the men’s competition ended up with Finland twenty-two points to the good, 215-193, while the Finnish women’s team were not disgraced this time, but still lost 197.5 to 209.5.
      Sweden swept the floor with the Finns in both the boys' and girls' events.
     
There were few outstanding performances on view, not least because of the absence through injury of a couple of top-ranking Swedes and the Finnish long-jumper Tommi Evilä.
      Even so, a number of athletes came good when it counted, with Finland's Juho-Matti Pimiä setting a personal best of 7.86 metres in the long jump (taking second behind Petteri Lax’s 788), and Eemeli Salomäki also raised his personal best by ten centimetres when clearing 5.50 metres in the pole vault.
      On the women’s side Merja Korpela recorded a season’s best of 68.25 metres in the hammer, and Joanna Halkoaho took advantage of the absence of Sweden’s Susanna Kallur to win the 100 metres hurdles in 13.42.
     
One crowd-pleasing novelty on Friday was that the six “official” runners of the women’s 100 metres were joined by Finnish Olympic swimmer Hanna-Maria Seppälä (4th in the 100 metres freestyle in Beijing, and world champion over the distance in 2003), who was trying out the 100 metres on dry land for the first time.
      The Swedes made a token protest that the inclusion of a “rank amateur” like Seppälä might disturb the other sprinters, especially if she made a false start, but it was rejected and the race went ahead with seven runners.
      Seppälä turned in a time of 14.42, but this was just under three seconds behind the winner, Finland’s Sari Keskitalo.
      The yawning gap did nothing to stop the popular Seppälä being mobbed by autograph-hunters after the race.
     
Most of the attention on Saturday focused on the men’s javelin, featuring Beijing bronze medallist Tero Pitkämäki and his adjutant Tero Järvenpää, who finished fourth in the Olympic final.
      Both Pitkämäki and Järvenpää had been competing the previous evening at a GP event in Zürich, and Pitkämäki only arrived in Helsinki a couple of hours before the off. The exertions of Friday were clear to see, as both men spared the horses and only threw three times out of a possible six attempts.
      While Pitkämäki had finished ahead of Järvenpää in Zürich (and behind Norway’s Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen), in Helsinki the roles were reversed and Järvenpää’s throw of 84.53 was enough to win. Pitkämäki threw 84.00 to take second spot.
      The Finns did not get their anticipated 1-2-3 victory in the discipline, as Sweden's Magnus Arvidsson (80.52) snatched third place ahead of Antti Ruuskanen (78.96 metres).
     
As usual, the two-day meet was well supported, with an aggregate attendance of 60,358. Saturday saw a nearly full house in the Olympic Stadium, with just under 34,000 present.
      Next year the teams will face off in Gothenburg.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland and Sweden renew old rivalry on the athletics track this weekend (29.8.2008)

Links:
  Finnkampen (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat