Siitonen's Sports Report for January

FARSPORTSJAN

Finland’s men’s Salibandy (Floor Ball) team moved smoothly through several challengers in the
Salibandy World Championships in Zurich until it ran into powerful Sweden in the finals on Dec. 9
when the blue and gold team from next door totally scalped the blue and white boys by a score of 11-
5. Sweden led 3-0 at the end of the first period, and 9-1 in the second. So Finland finally picked up its
5 goals too little and too late. Before this disastrous climax, Finland had swamped Canada, 29-3; beat
Czech Republic, 4-1; and host Switzerland in the semis, 4-3, in overtime. Zurich provided Sweden with its seventh floor ball gold, and Finland with its fifth silver. Finland has been tops three times. Switzerland easily subdued Germany for the bronze, 8-0. Salibandy is a kind of indoor floor hockey developed in Sweden in the 1970s.

Tampere’s Kiira Korpi, 25, became the first Finnish woman to qualify in the World Cup’s season’s figure skating final held at Sochi, Russia, Dec. 7-8, which is limited to the top six women in the season’s WC series. Korpi had gained the honor by winning the Moscow World Cup on Nov. 10, with a personal best 177.49 points. However, she injured her back at Moscow and was later plagued by stomach flu which forced her a week’s layoff from training before the Sochi final. So she didn’t expect to perform miracles. As it was, Korpi skated a PR of 63.42 points in her short program for fourth place. She was fifth in her free skate but had enough points to maintain her fourth place at the end, with 174.94 points. Mao Asada of Japan won with an excellent 196.80, USA’s Ashley Wagner was second with 181.93, and Japan’s Akiko Suzuki bronzed with 180.77.

Edis Tatli, 25, of Helsinki TKOed Italy’s Paolo Gassan in the first round to gain the European Union
lightweight (61K) boxing title at Espoo’s Leppävaara on Dec. 8. A native of Prizaen, Kosovo, Tatli now boxing for Finland, is considered a quick and skillful boxer with no lethal punch but he proved
differently against Gassan, when a sharp left hook in Round 1 preceded a heavy bombardment which
only ended with the referee’s decision to end the fight. Tatli has 19 pro wins without a loss, including 2 TKOs and 17 decisions.

In the European shot course swimming championships in Chartres, France on Nov. 22, Finnish women set a national record of 1:38.43 in the 4x50 free style relays to finish second to Denmark only by 0.39 seconds. The team included: Emilia Pikkarainen, Lotta Nevalainen, Laura Kurki and Hanna-Maria Seppälä. They also won a bronze in ther mixed gender 4x50 relays on Nov. 24 with Seppälä, Kurki, Andrei Tuomala and Ari-Pekka Liukkonen. France won with Russia second. Jenna Laukkanen set a Finnish record of 2:22.76 in the 200m breastroke in which she placed fifth.

Pekka Koskela skated to World cup speedskating win in his season’s opener in Heerenves,
Holland on Nov. 18 in a time of 34.46 in 500 meters, and scored second in the 1000m to Canadian
Denny Morrison’s 1:09.43. The next day Koskela injured his thigh at the start of the 500 and pulled
out, saying “it doesn’t look good. “ But Koskela’s fears were short lived as, he came back on Dec. 8 at Nagano, Japan to win both the 500 in 34.64 and the 1000 in 1.09.52. He now leads the World Cup in both events.

In World Cup cross country skiing, Mona Liisa Malvilehto was second and Anne Kyllönen third to Polish ace Justyna Kowalczyk s win in the sprint at Muonio, Finland on Nov. 16. Kowalczyk also won the 10K freestyle the next day at Muonio, with Riitta Liisa Roponen fifth. Matti Heikkinen trumped the mens 15K freestyle in 34.50.5.

Kaisa Mäkäräinen, 2008 Olympic champion, did her seasons best effort in the World Cup biathlon
pursuit at Hochfilzen on Dec. 8 with third place. Synnöve Solemdol was the winner. Peetu Piirainen was second in Beijings big air TTR circuit invitational snowboarding. He was edged by Yuki Kadono of Japan.