Olympics: No medals yet for Finland

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As of Tuesday morning, the Finnish team at the Vancouver Winter Olympics had failed to win a medal. With about one fifth of the events over, Switzerland leads the medal standings with three golds. The host country Canada is in sixth place, and has at least removed from its back the monkey of being the only host nation never to have won a gold medal at the Winter Games.
      The goal set by Finnish Olympic Committee for 12 medals in Vancouver, seems to be a very unlikely achievement after the fourth day of the games.
      Potential Finnish medalists have competed in several events, but the best achievement for Finland has been the fourth place finish of ski jumper Janne Ahonen during the weekend, and the fifth place of speed skater Mika Poutala.
     
Poutala was seen as a possible contender for gold after the first round of the 500-metres skating event, which he won.
      He was ahead on the split-times in the race, but pushed himself too hard and he stumbled twice, coming home only eleventh in the second race, which dropped him down into fifth overall. The race was won by South Korea’s Mo Tae-bum, with two Japanese skaters, Keiichiro Nagashima and Joji Kato getting the silver and bronze respectively.
      The race was a very tight one, and all the more disappointing for Poutala, since he missed the bronze medal by just three hundredths of a second.
     
Finland's male and female cross-country skiers did not succeed in their opening outings. Among the women, Riitta-Liisa Roponen put up the best showing, finishing sixth in the 10 km freestyle. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was 15th, in a race won by Charlotte Kalla of Sweden. Saarinen's best hopes of a medal are nevertheless still to come in the sprint and classic-style events.
      The best of the Finnish men in the 15km freestyle event on Monday was Ville Nousiainen , who finished 13th, more than a minute behind the Swiss winner Dario Cologna.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Fourth again! Janne Ahonen continues his unlucky streak (15.2.2010)

Links:
  Vancouver 2010

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