The Finnish Lions men's hockey team creamed its old archrival Sweden in the finals of the 2011 World Hockey Championships, 6-1, at Bratislava, Slovakia, on May 15 to become World Champs for the first time in 16 years. Finland went wild as tens of thousands flooded streets of Finnish towns and cities to celebrate throughout the night. The men performed magnificently throughout the series, defeating Russia twice, and losing only once, to the Czech Republic, 2-1, in the earlier rounds. The Czechs prevailed over Russia to take the bronze. Both major hockey powers USA and Canada finished out of the running this time.
At this writing, the NHL finals for the Stanley Cup, saw The Vancouver Canucks edging the Boston Briuns, in their first game, 1-0. Whichever team wins, there'll be a Finnish player sharing in the Stanley Cup. Veteran defenseman Sami Salo has long been a mainstay of the Canucks and Tuukka Rask is the No. 2 goalie of the Bruins. However Tuukka may not get much playing time, as first string Tim Thomas is one of the NHL top goalies, and may hold forth at the cage throughout the finals for the Beantowners.
Finnish runners shared a dual victory at the Nordic 10,000-meter track championships at Selfoss, Iceland on May 22. Jarkko Hamberg, 28, took the men's division in a time of 30:35.90, and veteran Elina Lindgren of Oulu was top woman in 34:48.11. Finland's Nina Chydnius, 21, won the women's bronze with 35:45.79.
Tero Pitkämäki prevailed in the javelin in a Diamond League world track meet at Shanghai on May 15, defeating an old pal and friendly rival, World and Olympic Champ Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway. Tero's spear flew for 85.33 meters and Andreas's 85.12. Teemu Wirkkala was 4th with 82.39. Meantime, Lassi Etelätalo, 23, of Joensuu, threw a personal best jav at 84.41, at Leppävirta on May 28, and World Junior Champ Ari Mannio prevailed at a meet in Dessau-Rosslau, Germany on June 1 with a toss of 83.57. Thus, Tero, Teemu, Lassi and Ari have now met the A standard in the javelin to qualify for the World Championships at Daegu, Korea this summer.
Jussi Utriainen won another of many Finnish national championships, as he took the Finnish cross-country running title on May 15 for the 9th time, this time at Nivala, where he covered the 12 kilometers in 39:12. Another longtime Finnish star Johanna Lehtinen was the women's winner at the 6Km distance in 21:20. By the way, Elina Lindgren, who later won the women's Nordic 10,000m championship, was runner-up at Nivala in 21:44.
Mårten Boström was the winner of the Copenhagen Marathon on May 22 in a time of 2:18:51. Mårten, who attended college in the US on athletic scholdarships for several years, has a personal marathon best of 2:18:51 which he earned at Ottawa three years ago. Kenyan-born Obed Kipkurui, now living in and competing for Finland, was 3rd in Bulgarian Open Marathon Championships at Kanarma, which he ran in 2:19:01. Winner was Morocco's Ahmed Nasef in 2:16:32. Obed, the reigning Finninsh marathon champion, had won this Bulgarian marathon last year.
Niina Kelo defends heptathlon title
Finland's top multi-event athlete Niina Kelo successfuly defended her 2010 heptathlon title in the Finland-Sweden-Estonia Triple meet at Seinäjoki on June 4-5. Her 5732 points qualified her for the European Athletics Championships at Helsinki next year. She also had a 54.47-meter (178'8.5") personal best in the javelin. Jenni Kivinoja was a pleasant surprise with her 3rd place standing, establishing personal bests in five of the seven events for a 5490 point total. Team results: FIN 16,545 SWE 16,023 EST 14,136. Disaster struck the Finnish men in the decathlon, after leading among men's teams after the first day of the competition. Leader Jarkko Ojaniemi injured himself on the 110m hurdles and couldm't continue. Another top Finn Samuli Itani failed to get a result in the pole vault. So in the men's results, Estonia was the winner, Sweden second and Finland third. (See jpg of Niina below)
Kristiina Mäkelä set a new Finnish and Nordic Women's -19 junior record in her 13.64m (44'9") triple jump victory at meet on June 4 in Lappeenranta.
Paralympic world champion Leo-Pekka Tähti won the100-meter race in 14.26 seconds in the Class 54 wheelchair division at a meet at Muttenge, Switzerland on June 4.
| Kelo_Niina_16.jpg 171K View Download |
-- Harry Siitonen
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