Sports for Nov. SO FAR...
Finland defeated Poland in exciting Davis Cup tennis play to advance to a higher
rung in the Euro-African Circuit on Sept 16-17 at the Espoo Arena. Henri Kontinen,
21, with an ATP ranking of 281, upset Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz, (ATP 171) to open the
tourney, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (10-12), 6-3 in a 3-hour match, blistering 21 aces along the way.
Finland’s top player Jarkko Nieminen, 31, (ATP 50) then trimmed the sails of Grzegorz
Panfil, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Finland cinched the deal the next day when a doubles team of
Nieminen and Kontinen edged Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenburg and Marcin Matkowski, 7-
6(10, 7-6(5) and 6-4. This Polish douibles team, ranked 11th in the world, had made the
finals of the recent US Open, hence another upset by the Finns. So the reverse singles
were just a formality. Finland sent a couple of young players Harri Heliovaara, 21, and
Micke Kontinen, 18, (Henri’s younger brother) against Janowicz and Panfil.to get top
tournament experience. Janowicz took Heliovaara, 6-3, 6-4, and Panfil had a tougher time
with young Micke, prevailing by 7-6 (6-1), 6-4. So Finland stays in the Euro-African
Division first division.
Led by Heikki Kukkonen’s excellent personal best of 1:24:07.52 in the 20,000-meter
racewalk, Finland defeated teams from Sweden, Norway and Denmark in the annual
Nordic Racewalk Track Championships at Halden, Norway on Sept. 17.
The World Boxing Organization has ranked Finnish heavyweight Robert Helenius
as Number One challenger to Ukrainian Vladimir Klitshcko’s WBO crown. However,
pro boxing’s bible, Ring Magazine, lists Helenius, who has been undefeated in 16
professional bouts, as only 6th. In 1938, Ring ranked Finland’s Gunnar Bärlund as No. 3
contender to Joe Louis’s then undisputed heavyweight title. In today’s tangled pugilistic
mess there are five different heavyweight world titles! Vladimir holds the championship
belt in four of them. In addition to the WBO crown, he’s also world champ of the
World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation, and International Boxing
Organization. His brother Vitali is the world heavyweight champ of the World Boxing
Council. The gargantuan Ukrainian brothers have sworn to their mother that they will
never fight one another in the ring. So Helenius has a big chore ahead of him if he’s
going to try to pick off one or more of these titles. Meantime, he’s being groomed to take
on the overall European champ German-Ukrainian Alexander Dimitrenko, instead.
Sini (Pöyry) Latvala, 7-time Finnish women’s national hammer-throwing champ, has
scored a world best distance in the Olympic weight throw of 12.30 meters at Kauhajoki
on Sept. 19. It’s not considered a world record event because it’s not a worldwide sport.
It is practiced in the United States, however, especially among masters’ age groups. The
senior men’s Olympic weight is 56 pounds or 25.4 kilos, and the women’s is 35 pounds
or 15.88 kilos. Sini is one powerful woman of Amazonian scale.
Back to boxing, Juho Haapaoja decisioned France’s Faisal Ibnel Arrami to take
the European Union light-heavyweight crown on a card in Helsinki on Sept. 23. In a
women’s feature bout, Finland’s Eva Wahlström TKOed Marisel Reyes of the Dominican
Republic in the 7th round when the referee stopped the fight. Wahlström fights in the
upper featherweight division.
Finnish national champ Leena Puotiniemi, 35, was 15th woman in the Berlin Marathon
on Sept, 25, but her personal best time of 2:35:54 met the A standard, qualifying her for
the 2012 London Olympics. Puotiniemi only began running at age 27 and competed in
the Kaleva Games Finnish National Championships for the first time at 32, But the big
news at Berlin was the new world record time run in a marathon by Patrick Makau, 26,
of Kenya in 2:03:38. It wasn’t the fastest time ever run as Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya won
the Boston Marathon last April in 2:03:02, and right behind him at 2:03:06 was fellow
Kenyan Moses Musop. But since the Boston Marathon is a point to point instead of a
loop course and has a long downhill tendency it does not calculate in world record times.
Florence Kiplagat of Kenya won the women’s division at Berlin in 2:19:43.
Finland’s Kenyan-born Lewis Korir, 25, won the famous Liddingoloppet 30Km cross-
county run at Lidingo,. Sweden on Sept. 24. This is considered about the largest run
in the world with 40,000 participants. Two years ago Korir was the Finnish national
champion in the 5000 and 10,000-meter runs as well as the marathon. But since he wasn’t
a Finnish citizen he was disallowed being crowned a national champion last year. He
intends to apply for Finnish citizenship to correct that situation, He runs for the TUUL
running club of Turku.
After a mediocre season on the US women’s golf tour, Finland’s Minea Blomqvist
popped into form by finishing third in the European Tour’s French Open recently. In
fact, she was only one point behind the top two women with an excellent score of 275
(68+67+71+67), 13 under par. England’s Felicity Johnson and Italy’s Diana Luna tied
for top spot with 274 (14 under par). Johnson won the shootout. Finland’s Kaisa Ruuttila
tied for 4th place one point behind Blomqvist. Minea won 17,500 euros for her great
showing to bring her brief European tour total this year to 65,000E so far.
(This is it, but Anaheim Ducks are playing a top Finnish team in hockey at Helsinki this
week and will open its NHL season in Helsinki against the Buffalo Sabres.. If you have
room I’ll send results before deadline. Teemu Selänne and Saku Koivu are teaming up
again for the Ducks.)
All-time great hockey player Teemu Selänne was treated like a rock star by Finnish fans when his Anaheim Ducks NHL Club showed up in Helsinki to open their season against the Buffalo Sabres. Saku Pinta and Toni Lydman of the Ducks also were appreciated but with Selänne it was "over the top.", In an exhibition game with Finland's Jokerit (Jokers) hockey club, Anaheim puilled out a 4-3 OT win on Oct. 5, with Selänne accredited with an assist in defeating his old Finnish alma mater which he left in 1992 for the NHL. But then came the season's opener with the Sabres on Oct. 7. :Not so hot for the Ducks, as Buffalo stampeded over them 4-1. No points for Selänne or Koivu, but both had a chance to cool off in the penalty box, Teemu once and Saku twice. But then again Finlander Ville Leino did bang out a goal for the razor-sharp Sabres. (FOOTNOTE: The National Hockey League has a number of excellent Finnish players but we won't be reporting much on the subject during the season because it would be too much of an overload for a monthly column. Follow the events in your daily media, and if you live conveniently, go see your NHL favorites play. --
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FALL OCTOBER SPORTS