Ruka round-up: Manninen roars back, Saarinen wins, but men skiers disappoint
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The weekend's Nordic sking at the Ruka resort in Kuusamo proved to be a triumphant return for the former Nordic Combined World Cup winner Hannu Manninen, who retired from the sport in May 2008.
On Saturday Manninen finished second behind Jason Lamy Chapuis of France in a competition on Ruka's 142-metre hill and over 10km of the cross-country track, and as if this were not sensational enough, on the Sunday he went one better and came home in front of Germany's Tino Edelmann and Eric Frenzel, delivering a blistering finish to overhaul his rivals and take the win.
It is of course early days as yet, but after the first two competitions of the season, Manninen is back where he could predictably be found before - at the head of the World Cup standings, wearing the traditional yellow leader's bib.
It is unlikely he will remain there indefinitely (although anything is possible, it seems), since Manninen plans only a slimmed-down race season. He is looking towards the Olympics in Vancouver, but at the same time is reluctant to abandon his studies - he is training to become a commercial pilot.
Other Finns in contention in the Nordic Combined included Jaakko Tallus (7th and 14th), Janne Ryynänen (8th and 16th), and Anssi Koivuranta, last season's World Cup winner, who finished 5th on Saturday but chose not to start in Sunday's race as he is still recovering from a bout of flu.
There was also a Finnish winner in the women's sking. On Sunday Aino-Kaisa Saarinen - who is on present standings one of finland's strongest medal hopes in Vancouver - won the 10km classic event by a fairly comfortable margin of 13.1 seconds from Irina Hazova of Russia.
Since Saarinen also finished fourth in Saturday's 1.2km sprint, and was 9th in the 10km freestyle season-opener in Norway a week ago, she has done enough to merit the yellow bib herself, and is leading the World Cup standings with 179 points.
Riita-Liisa Roponen finished 13th on Sunday, but can feel quite pleased with this as she prefers the freestyle discipline to the traditional classic style. She finished 6th in Norway, for example.
Less impressive, however, was the showing of Virpi Kuitunen, who had also been expected to be a medal candidate in Vancouver. While last year in the same race Kuitunen had been runner-up to Saarinen, she was now tailed off in 19th, over a minute adrift. Kuitunen did not show any great speed in the other skiing discipline in Norway, either, and was not among the leaders in Saturday's sprint.
On the men's side, there was little to warm the hearts of the coaching staff.
Sunday's 15km classic race was something of a fiasco for both Matti Heikkinen and Sami Jauhojärvi, who failed to make the top thirty and score any World Cup points.
Heikkinen had one week earlier managed a promising 3rd-place finish in Norway, but now he was found down at 71st on the results list.
The best-placed of the Finns was Ville Nousiainen, who came home in 16th, just over half a minute behind the winner, Petter Northug of Norway.
If Hannu Manninen was able to get straight back into his stride, there was not quite the same fairytale return for ski-jumper Janne Ahonen.
Ahonen was a member of the Finnish quartet that finished 3rd behind Austria and Germany in the team event on Friday, and there he produced a jump of 140 metres and scored enough points to put himself in the top five jumpers on individual scores, but Saturday was a different story.
In the individual event on the 142m hill Ahonen finished only 34th after the first round, and took no further part in the competition.
The event was won by Norway's Björn Einar Romören, ahead of German Pascal Bodmer and Wolfgang Loitzl of Austria.
One had to go a fair way down the results list to find the first Finnish respresentative: Kalle Keituri was 14th.
Matti Hautamäki (16th) and Janne Happonen (21st) also picked up some World Cup points, but another failure on the day was Harri Olli, who could do no better than a jump of 77 metres.
The ski-jumpers will do battle again next weekend in Lillehammer, Norway, and the next cross-country event will be a city sprint in Düsseldorf, Germany. The Nordic Combined athletes are also in action in Lillehammer.
On Saturday Manninen finished second behind Jason Lamy Chapuis of France in a competition on Ruka's 142-metre hill and over 10km of the cross-country track, and as if this were not sensational enough, on the Sunday he went one better and came home in front of Germany's Tino Edelmann and Eric Frenzel, delivering a blistering finish to overhaul his rivals and take the win.
It is of course early days as yet, but after the first two competitions of the season, Manninen is back where he could predictably be found before - at the head of the World Cup standings, wearing the traditional yellow leader's bib.
It is unlikely he will remain there indefinitely (although anything is possible, it seems), since Manninen plans only a slimmed-down race season. He is looking towards the Olympics in Vancouver, but at the same time is reluctant to abandon his studies - he is training to become a commercial pilot.
Other Finns in contention in the Nordic Combined included Jaakko Tallus (7th and 14th), Janne Ryynänen (8th and 16th), and Anssi Koivuranta, last season's World Cup winner, who finished 5th on Saturday but chose not to start in Sunday's race as he is still recovering from a bout of flu.
There was also a Finnish winner in the women's sking. On Sunday Aino-Kaisa Saarinen - who is on present standings one of finland's strongest medal hopes in Vancouver - won the 10km classic event by a fairly comfortable margin of 13.1 seconds from Irina Hazova of Russia.
Since Saarinen also finished fourth in Saturday's 1.2km sprint, and was 9th in the 10km freestyle season-opener in Norway a week ago, she has done enough to merit the yellow bib herself, and is leading the World Cup standings with 179 points.
Riita-Liisa Roponen finished 13th on Sunday, but can feel quite pleased with this as she prefers the freestyle discipline to the traditional classic style. She finished 6th in Norway, for example.
Less impressive, however, was the showing of Virpi Kuitunen, who had also been expected to be a medal candidate in Vancouver. While last year in the same race Kuitunen had been runner-up to Saarinen, she was now tailed off in 19th, over a minute adrift. Kuitunen did not show any great speed in the other skiing discipline in Norway, either, and was not among the leaders in Saturday's sprint.
On the men's side, there was little to warm the hearts of the coaching staff.
Sunday's 15km classic race was something of a fiasco for both Matti Heikkinen and Sami Jauhojärvi, who failed to make the top thirty and score any World Cup points.
Heikkinen had one week earlier managed a promising 3rd-place finish in Norway, but now he was found down at 71st on the results list.
The best-placed of the Finns was Ville Nousiainen, who came home in 16th, just over half a minute behind the winner, Petter Northug of Norway.
If Hannu Manninen was able to get straight back into his stride, there was not quite the same fairytale return for ski-jumper Janne Ahonen.
Ahonen was a member of the Finnish quartet that finished 3rd behind Austria and Germany in the team event on Friday, and there he produced a jump of 140 metres and scored enough points to put himself in the top five jumpers on individual scores, but Saturday was a different story.
In the individual event on the 142m hill Ahonen finished only 34th after the first round, and took no further part in the competition.
The event was won by Norway's Björn Einar Romören, ahead of German Pascal Bodmer and Wolfgang Loitzl of Austria.
One had to go a fair way down the results list to find the first Finnish respresentative: Kalle Keituri was 14th.
Matti Hautamäki (16th) and Janne Happonen (21st) also picked up some World Cup points, but another failure on the day was Harri Olli, who could do no better than a jump of 77 metres.
The ski-jumpers will do battle again next weekend in Lillehammer, Norway, and the next cross-country event will be a city sprint in Düsseldorf, Germany. The Nordic Combined athletes are also in action in Lillehammer.
Helsingin Sanomat