Winter Sports Round-Up: Finnish speed skater wins in Berlin

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In the men's 500 metres event on Saturday, the Finnish speed skater Pekka Koskela took top honours at the distance with a winning time of 35.02, beating out the strong Korean skaters Kang-Seok Lee and Kyou-Hyuk Lee.
      The second Essent ISU World Cup speed skating competition of the season concluded on Sunday in Berlin.
      This was only the second World Cup win in the 500 metre in Koskela's career. Previously, he grabbed first place in China in December 2004. Earlier this season he had finished 3rd, 4th, and 6th over this favourite distance of his.
      In the final 1000 metres on Sunday, Koskela finished 10th in 1,10.23, with Dutchman Erben Wennemars winning with 1,08.88.
     
     
Women skiers provide bright spot in cross-country relay
      The Finnish women's relay team provided the only bright moments at a FIS World Cup event in Jällivaara, Sweden at the weekend. The quartet of Kirsi Välimaa, Virpi Kuitunen, Riitta-Liisa Roponen, and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen skied into third place behind winners Norway and runners-up Germany.
      The result could have been even better, but for a fall by Saarinen, who took the anchor leg of the 4 x 5 kilometre event. She was challenging for the lead with around two kilometres to go when she failed to negotiate a sharp right-hand turn and crashed out. After that it was simply a matter of skiing home to take a comfortable if slightly disappointing third spot.
      The Finns eventually completed the race 26.8 seconds behind the Norwegian team. Riitta-Liisa Roponen gave a particularly good account of herself, pulling the team up from third place to a narrow lead at the last changeover.
      If the women showed some promise for the season ahead, less could be said for the men. The Finnish men's 4 x 10 kilometres relay team could do no better than ninth place, some two minutes adrift from winners Germany.


Links:
  International Skating Union ISU
  FIS pages - Cross-Country Skiing

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