News31 Aug 2009


Grand slam for Sweden as men's match goes to the wire

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Johan Wissman of Sweden competes in the men's 400m heats at the IAAF World Championships (© Getty Images)

Gothenburg, SwedenEighteen individual events – with both teams fielding three athletes in each event – plus two relays means that there are no less than 410 points to compete for in the traditional and prestigious matches between athletic arch rivals Sweden and Finland. So the probability that the "Finnkampen" would still undecided at the start of the final event is really very low.

But still exactly that has happened remarkably often in recent years and the 2009 edition of the meet – which premiered in 1925 and which has been held yearly since 1950 – produced one of the most dramatic endings ever in the men's match. The drama was almost perfectly scripted with Sweden leading by 6 points and the projected outcome of the last event – the 800m – being a 6 point advantage for Finland!

With Sweden missing its top 800m runner – European Indoor bronze medallist Mattias Claesson – due to illness the Finnish runners felt they would be at an advantage pushing the pace and their third runner Ravi Oravakangas was given the assignment. He probably was a little bit too ambitious passing halfway in 52.7 with his compatriots in close pursuit.

On the second backstretch Oravakangas started fading and favourite Mikko Lahtio took over and he won in 1:47 not looking back until reaching the finish line. Then he got the shock message that he had been followed across the line by the three yellow vests! Because it turned out that the Finnish pacing had suited the Swedish runners perfectly as all three of them recorded new PB's, two of them by sizeable margins.

So rather than producing the forecast 14-8 for Finland the 800m-score ended up 12-10 for Sweden which secured the overall win by 8 points for the host nation. The first triumph for the Swedish men since 2004 really came as a shock for just about everyone as the yearly best marks of the participants had projected a very clear 38 points win for Finland.

But that kind of turnaround has always been one of the real charms of the Finnkampen. With three athletes in each event the scoring is determined just as much by the 2nd and 3rd string athletes as by the top names. Of course it is important for team success that the stars do their thing – like this time Johan Wissman taking the 200m/400m double and Linus Thörnblad winning the High Jump comfortably – but a significant swing in the scoring can only be achieved by unheralded athletes over performing.

The 800m-runners provided a perfect illustration of that but there were also a number of other pivotal moments for the Swedish team during the weekend at the Ullevi Stadium (which hosted the 1995 World Championships and the 2006 European Championships):

In the Berlin Long Jump qualification Michel Tornéus finished 23 m behind Finn Tommi Evilä who at 8.01 missed the final by the narrowest of margins. Here Tornéus turned the tables on Evilä winning with 7.97 vs 7.86.

34-year-old Oscar Janson has been plagued by injuries ever since setting the 5.87m NR six years ago – but still has not given up. Now his perseverance paid off as after raising his yearly best mark by 15cm to 5.60 he defeated World Championship Pole Vaulters Eemeli Salomäki and Alhaji Jeng.

But the big surprise was provided by javelin thrower Gabriel Wallin who almost pulled off a victory in the Finnish national event! By 79.69m, his best throw in four years, the Swede was leading going into the last round where only Ari Mannio – and only barely – managed to surpass Wallin. Berlin finalists Teemu Virkkala and Antti Ruuskanen this day had to be content with 78m-marks.

That all the three Finnish javelin throwers had competed in the Zürich meet on Friday evening ought not to have had any effect on the outcome. After all the steeplechasers Jukka Keskisalo and Mustafa Mohamed had also been in action in the "Weltklasse" – Keskisalo even setting a National record – and they still finished on top now.

The nominally rather mediocre marks in the field events could be mainly attributed to the weather conditions where during the two days it shifted continuously back and forth between sunshine and heavy rain and where the wind played all kinds of strange games with the athletes. In the men's Long Jump e.g. it varied between -4.3 and +4.5 metres per second!

Least affected were probably the Hammer Throwers so it is just logical that Olli-Pekka Karjalainen produced the top mark and the top series of the men's match: Three 78m-throws with a 78.70 on top. Hopes for a mark of similar quality in the Triple Jump by Christian Olsson were quenched by the weather and a sore back and Christian had to be content with 16.61 as his winning distance.

If one breaks down the match into different groups of events the Finns were as usual dominant in the throws (+32 points) while the Swedes were ruling the running events (+36), especially the sprints (+26).

Women

In the women's match - where the Swedish team lived up to its position as favourite winning for the 9th straight year – the patterns were much more complex:

Sweden dominated the sprints (+28) and the long distances (+22) while Finland was clearly ahead at middle distances (+12) and hurdle races (+14). In the field events Sweden was actually topping the throws (+2) while it was advantage Finland in the jumps (+10).

The only female Swedish or Finnish athlete reaching a final at the Berlin World Championships was High Jumper Emma Green and she lived up to that status now by winning the competition already with her opening height 1.81. She followed that by 1.90 and very close attempts at 1.95 despite the rain and the wind.

Javelin Thrower Mikaela Ingberg and Pole Vaulter Minna Nikkanen were fairly close to the Berlin finals (14th and 19th respectively in the qualifications) and won their events here. For Ingberg however the win turned out tougher than expected as Sweden's Annika Petersson for most of the competition looked set to take the first Swedish win in this event since 1979. But in the end Ingberg prevailed by 57.64 vs 55.91 for Petersson.

"Prevailing in the end" was the appropriate description of Anna Söderberg's performance in the Discus. Söderberg – who had won the event for 11 straight years – inexplicably was throwing some ten metres below her normal standard and was only 5th after three rounds.  But digging deep down into the experience gathered in close to two decades on the national team Söderberg moved into 3rd  in round 4, into 2nd in round 5 and in the very last throw of the whole competition she by 57.93 extended her Finnkampen winning streak to 12!

But not only experience but also youthful freshness and enthusiasm was a winning concept in this match. Two good illustrations:

European Junior bronze medallist Moa Hjelmer provided the Swedish team with wins in the 200m and the 400m as well as a leg on the winning 4x400m relay team.

World Youth finalist Nooralotta Neziri won the 100m Hurdles after lowering her PB over the senior hurdles by over three tenths to 13.48.

Youths

Talking about youths there are since 1969 also youth matches held concurrently with the senior matches. Sweden did not use any of its four Bressanone medallists on the senior team, but it should be noted that both gold medallist Pole Vaulter Anglica Bengtsson by clearing 4.35 and bronze medallist 400m runner Sandra Wagner by running 53.04 actually surpassed the winning marks in the senior match!

After a season mostly characterized by injuries to almost every top senior athlete it was really a much needed positive ending for the host nation to the 2009 summer that this weekend turned out a complete success: For the first time ever Sweden had won all four Finnkampen matches the same year!

But that still is no reason for complacency, rather the complete opposite. Because now the Finnish athletes will more than ever be hungry for revenge when they host the 2010 edition of Finnkampen at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. The oldest international match in athletics might turn 85 next year, but it is certainly still very much alive and kicking!

Lennart Julin for the IAAF

Final scores 2009

Men: Sweden 208, Finland 200
Women: Sweden 213, Finland 197
Boys U18: Sweden 113, Finland 85
Girls U18: Sweden 110, Finland 91

Click here for RESULTS

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