Rowers Stén and Nieminen bring back third medal from Beijing

First medal on the rowing track for 24 years, and the first ever by Finnish women

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Finland's official medals target at the Beijing Olympics has been reached. The third Finnish medal of the games came on Sunday morning local time, when Sanna Stén and Minna Nieminen took silver in the women's lightweight double sculls at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing & Canoeing Park.
      The Finns briefly led the final, but were overhauled in the last 500 metres of the 2,000-metre race by the favourites, Kirsten van der Kolk and Marit van Eupen of The Netherlands.
      At the line, the Dutch pair had opened up a lead of 1.29 seconds over the Finns, who held off the challenge from Canada's Melanie Kok and Tracy Cameron by 0.65 seconds.
     
If anyone has deserved a reward in Beijing it is the two 31-year-olds Stén and Nieminen, for they have trained together intensively for four years for Sunday's race.
      In the past year they have each lost ten kilos in weight and have been on an almost permanent diet.
      The rules of the lightweight sculls require that the rowers' combined weight may not exceed 114 kilos. They also got the medal the hard way, having to race three times to secure a place in the final. 
     
This was not their first success together: they took a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships, bronze in the same event in 2005, and silver in the double sculls at the European Championships two years ago.
      The medal was the first in rowing by a Finn since 1984, when rowing legend Pentti Karppinen won the third of his three golds in the single sculls (Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980, and Los Angeles).
      It is also the first-ever medal won by Finnish women in this discipline.
     
Other Finns in action on Sunday included Olli-Pekka Karjalainen, who finished sixth in the men's hammer throwing.
      Karjalainen, a silver medallist at the 2006 European Championships, can feel he justified his selection, since he threw a season's best 79.59 in the final.
      It was not good enough for a medal in a highly competitive contest, in which five men threw over 80 metres and Primoz Kozmus  of Slovenia came out on top, to win his country's first Olympic athletics gold with a throw of 82.02.
     
Kyra Kyrklund and her mount Max placed 10th in the dressage Grand Prix Special, to progress to the final freestyle round on Tuesday, at which the medals will be decided.
      The pairing's performance was not quite up to that of the first round, and they finished in 10th place.
      Also into a Tuesday final, by the skin of his teeth, is discus thrower Frantz Kruger.
      Kruger, a naturalised Finn who already has a bronze medal from Sydney when representing South Africa, was the last man into the 12-man final, making it by a narrow margin of just four centimetres with his last throw.
      One person who will not be competing is Jukka Keskisalo, who lost his battle to get fit for the 3,000 metres steeplechase. As the reigning European Champion, Keskisalo was seen as having an outside chance of success in Beijing.
     
The Finnish Olympic Committee set a target of three medals from Beijing, one of which was to be gold, and this has now been reached, with one medal of each colour so far.
      Satu Mäkelä-Nummela won the women's trap shooting and Henri Häkkinen took a bronze in the air rifle event.
     
The fact that the formal objective has been satisfied may take a little of the pressure off the shoulders of Tero Pitkämäki, the current javelin World Champion, as he prepares for his encounter with friend and rival Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway.
      Pitkämäki, who has been short of his best form in recent months, will take part in qualifying for the javelin final on Thursday.    


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hanna-Maria Seppälä fourth in 100 metres freestyle final (15.8.2008)

Links:
  Sanna Stén: Beijing Olympics
  Minna Nieminen: Beijing Olympics
  Rowing on the Finnish Olympic Team site

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