Sports Round-Up: Poutiainen and Ahonen continue their charge on skis

Big wins for Koskela and Virtanen in the Far East

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The weekend saw important wins for slalom and giant slalom specialist Tanja Poutiainen and ski-jumper Janne Ahonen, who both dominate their respective sports in the FIS World Cup standings. Another World Cup win came from a less anticipated source: Pekka Koskela won the 500 metres speed skating event in Harbin, China on Saturday. The weekend wins were rounded off by 35-year-old bowler Kai Virtanen, who made a successful return to the top echelons of the sport and took the title at the 40th AMF Bowling World Cup championships in Singapore.
     
Janne Ahonen is threatening to do to ski-jumping what Michael Schumacher has done to Formula One: turn it into a procession with all the interest centring on who comes second.
      The first six competitions of the current ski-jumping season have seen the defending World Cup champion win five times, with the only tiny blemish so far coming in Saturday’s event at Harrachov in the Czech Republic: Ahonen finished in 2nd place behind Adam Malysz of Poland. .
      The Finn restored the status quo at the same venue on Sunday with yet another victory, though in all fairness the opposition is getting a lot closer: this time Roar Ljökelsöy of Norway, who pushed Ahonen all the way last year, came within 1.5 points of victory. It was only Ljökelsöy’s first podium appearance this season. Third place on Sunday went to the local boy Jakub Janda.
      The Czech is currently lying in 2nd spot behind Ahonen in the overall FIS tables, but since Ahonen already has a total of 580 points out of a possible 600 (!!), some wags were suggesting on Sunday night that if he stays fit and continues to jump half as well as he has so far, Ahonen could wrap the title up by January.
     
     
Tanja Poutiainen also proved on Sunday that those who feared her blistering start to the season in the slalom and giant slalom might be a false dawn should think again. She collected her third World Cup win of the season so far, when she triumphed by a narrow margin over Marlies Schild of Austria in the slalom at Altenmarkt.
      Poutiainen has now finished on the podium in all five starts in her two specialist events, with one second place and one third place. She, too, leads the overall standings. This is in spite of the fact that Poutiainen does not compete at all in the downhill, and is a total beginner in the Super-G.
      On Saturday, she raced in her first-ever World Cup Super G, and was visibly delighted to pick up a single World Cup point for finishing 30th. She has promised to have another go in St. Moritz next week.
      Sunday’s slalom win enabled Poutiainen to recapture the overall lead from friend and rival Anja Pärson of Sweden, who finished fourth. Pärson had collected some useful extra points on Saturday by coming home 8th in the Super G event. Poutiainen now leads the Swede by 441 points to 393, with Janica Kostelic of Croatia (3rd on Sunday) a further ten points back. Poutiainen also heads both the slalom and giant slalom tables.
      For all that, the Finn is anxious to play down any speculation that she could win the entire pot, as she says it has never been her plan for this season. She knows full well that she is now the skier everyone wants to beat, and even if she did not know this, it was pointed out firmly by Kostelic on Sunday: "Tanja’s kicking our asses right now," admitted the 22-year-old Croatian.
     
     
Pekka Koskela is not a name we have featured extensively before, but on Saturday he came good on the promise he has shown earlier this season and won the 500 metres event at a World Cup speed skating meet on the indoor track at Harbin in China.
      He actually won by a relatively comfortable margin for this sport, with Joji Kato of Japan 0.15 seconds back in 2nd. Third place went to multiple World Champion Jeremy Wotherspoon of Canada.
      Koskela’s time of 35.38 was good, but not his personal best, which is 35.17. The 22-year-old’s achievement is an important milestone: no Finn before him has managed to win a World Cup event since the International Skating Union launched the World Cup in 1984.
      On Sunday, Koskela finished 10th over the same distance in a race won by Wotherspoon. His result was somewhat spoiled by a small mistake on the first bend that cost him time and places. Koskela was also 8th in the 1000 metres. He is now in sixth spot overall in the 500 metres tables, and in 14th for the 1000 metres.
     
     
Kai Virtanen quit serious competitive bowling in 1999 after enjoying a long and successful career at the top. He never completely abandoned the sport, however, and said he kept taking part in competitions "for my own pleasure and to annoy the younger ones", and his talents remained enough to win him a silver medal at the Finnish Championships in 2002.
      Last weekend, however, he went a great deal better than that. Virtanen won the 40th AMF Bowling World Cup championships in Singapore, beating 2nd-seeded Petter Hansen of Norway in a thrilling final.
      Finns have now won this coveted title four times. In 1965, on the very first occasion when the World Cup was competed for, Lauri Ajanto won in Dublin. Tom Hahl won in Thailand in 2000, and Mika Luoto was the third victor in Riga two years ago.


Links:
  FIS tables
  International Skating Union
  AMF Bowling World Cup Championship
  Finnish, U.S. bowlers win 40th AMF Bowling World Cup

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