Sports So Far... March 2014
It's too bad that Sports So Far's March editorial deadline falls in the early stages of the Winter Olympics that began on Feb. 8 in Sochi, Russia. But our first Finnish medalist emerged the next day. She was Enni Rukajärvi, 21, of Kuusamo who earned a silver in the women's slopestyle snowboarding, a brand new Olympic event.
Norway's fabulous Marit Björgen won the 15k combined cross-sountry skiing championship (7.5k traditional, 7.5k freestyle) on Feb. 8 as expected, in 1:38:33.6 Finland's Aino-Kaisa Saarinen came in fifth, only 2.1 seconds behind bronze medalist Heidi Weng of Norway. Sweden's Charlotte Kalla claimed the silver.
We'll report other Finnish accomplishments at Sochi in the April issue.
So for now we'll go to other pre-Sochi winter sports results. Juulia Turkkila, 18, was 12th in the European women's figure skating championships at Budap-est in January with a score of 140.52. Winner was Olympic star Julia Lipniskaya, 15, of Russia Winners of the Finnish cross-country sprint championships at Vantaa on Jan.17 were for the Men: 1. Martti Jylhä. 2.Iivo Niskanen. 3. Juho Mikkonen. Women: 1. Anne Kyllönen. 2. Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja. 3. Kerttu Niskanen. Next day Sami Jauhojärvi took the men's 15Kclassic XC title, followed by Tero Simula and Matti Heikkinen. In the women's 10K it was: Kyllönen, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Niskanen.
Petja Piirainen was the World Cup Big Air snowboarding champion at Stoneham, Canada, but was only 12th in the Olympics at Sochi. Janne Korpi was third in the snowboarding half-pipe at Laax, Switzerland, with Iouri Palatechnov of the host country the winner.
Julia Kykkänen bronzed in the women's ski jump at Hinzenbach for her first international medal on Feb. 2. Japan's Sara Takanashi was the winner. Julia will be Finland's jump specialist at Sochi,, another Olympic first for women in this sport. Ilkka Herola was second in the Nordic combined ski jump and 10K XC event at Val di Fiemme, with Austria's Phillipp Orter the winner in 29:47.1. Ilkka was only four seconds behind. Iivo Niskanen also won a junior men's 15K at Val di Fiemme for youngsters under 23. Riitta-Liisa Roponen won the XC Marathon Cup at Obertilliach, Austria on Jan. 19, covering the 42 kilometers (26.2miles) in 2:03:30.28, seven seconds ahead of Russia's Julia Tihonova.
In the world of European golf, Mikko Ilonen was tied for the lead at Doha, Qatar at the end of regular play with 6 under par, but Sergio Garcia of Spain took the playoff to win 305,00 euros. Ilonen's take was 203,000. On Feb. 2, Ilonen finished fifth on the strength of his score of 64 in the final day's round. He had 275 strokes to winner Scotland's Stephen Gallacher who had 272. This has been and excellent season for Ilonen and we just learned that he's now ranked 55th in world golf, his highest career standing ever.
On the women's wrestling scene, Petra Olli lost in the semi-finals to the world's best wrestler in the 58 kilo class, Kaori Icho of Japan at Krasnojarak, Russia and came up with a bronze. Icho has won three Olympic golds and seven world championsips. Olli had four matches that day, three of which she won. Pauliina Hietaniemi was voted their 2013 Athlete of the Year by the Finnish Labor Sports Federation (TUL). Hietaniemi had won a world championship gold in the 50k weight class in Taekwon-do in Spain last October. She's from Tampere.
Tero Pitkämäki was voted the 2013 Finnish Athlete of the Year by the Finnish Athletics Federation (SUL) on the basis of his World Championship javelin silver medal in Moscow, and for the longest throw of the year in the world of 89.03m. Runner-up was Mårten Boström for his sprint distance orienteering world championship, and third was Matti Mattsson for his bronze in men's world swimming championships.
-- Submitted by Harry Siitonen
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