Pirjo Muranen adds sprint bronze medal

Finland's medals tally at the Nordic Skiing World Championships in Liberec went up to four on Tuesday, as Pirjo Muranen added a bronze in the women's sprint event.
      She finished behind World Champion Arianna Follis of Italy and silver medallist Kikkan Randall of the United States, and but for a bit of a stumble just metres from the line, Muranen might well have overhauled the American.
      As it was, there was just 0.1 seconds between them, with Follis 0.6 seconds ahead in front.
     
The medal completes a set of all the colours for Muranen: she won gold at the World Championships in the individual sprint in 2001, and took a silver medal in the team sprint in 2005. Muranen also has a gold medal from the women's 4 x 5 km relay at the 2007 Worlds in Sapporo.
      Although she has long carried the label of a sprint specialist, 27-year-old Muranen - who is also the younger sister of the now-retired Nordic Combined Olympic and World Championships multi-medallist Hannu Manninen - was 7th in the opening 10 kilometres classic event, won by Finland's Aino-Kaisa Saarinen.
      Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen are in action today in the women's team sprint event.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Liberec: Saarinen adds to medals haul, but Koivuranta and Olli miss out (23.2.2009)

Links:
  Pirjo Muranen official page, Finnish & English
  Liberec 2009
  Pirjo Muranen on the FIS site