Tanja Poutiainen's success on the slopes this season has got at least two of the male members of the Finnish Women's Alpine Ski Team running - if not in circles, then on the flat.
Equipment specialist Jan Tuupainen, whose responsibilities include keeping Poutiainen's skis in tip-top condition, is facing a 42-kilometre outing in August. Last summer he had a bet with Poutiainen: if she were to win two World Championship medals in Bormio, Tuupainen would run the Helsinki Marathon.
Tuupainen learnt his fate on Friday evening.
The team's Swiss coach Michael Bont has had appreciably longer to get himself into shape: Bont rashly promised to enter the marathon if Poutiainen managed to get onto the podium four times during the current World Cup campaign.
She had brought that incentive bonus safely home by November 28th - her first four races (2nd-1st-3rd-1st) meant that Bont could post his entry-form off well before Christmas. .
"I haven't seen Jan lately. Has he gone out jogging already?" laughed Poutiainen after Friday's silver-medal performance, and she said she plans to be beside the course in Helsinki on August 5th, handing out refreshments to her victims.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.2.2005
