Sports So Far... [May 2014] - The Siitonen Report

We start with a nostalgic but proud look at the career of Tanja Poutiainen,  33, of Rovaniemi, one of Finland's finest alpine skiers, who has announced her retirement from executing the slalom and giant slalom specialties in which  she excelled for many years on the world scene. Her last Winter Olympics outing was this year at Sochi where she finished 12th in the slalom and 14th in the giant slalom. It was time to quit. Tanja's best Olympic effort was at Torino in 2006 where she won a silver. Poutiainen (below) also had four World Championship medals besides two overall season's wins in the World Cup giant slalom and one in the slalom. She was probably Finland's finest all-time women's alpine skier and the only Finn to qualify this year for Sochi in her specialities.

Biathlete Kaisa Mäkäräinen, 31, picked up a head of steam after so-so placings at Sochi, by winning the season's World Cup competition.

In mid-March, she won three World Cup competitions on home turf at Kontiolahti, in the simultaneous start, sprint and 10K pursuit. This gave Mäkäräinen (left) the season's World Cup lead, as they headed for the final round at Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway. Her first event there produced four missed shots which relegated Kaisa to 23rd place, thus allowing runner-up Norwegian Tora Bergen to gain the Cup lead on March 20.  On March 22, Mäkäräinen  snared fourth place with two missed shots. But she concluded the World Cup series with seventh place in the simultaneous start, with Bergen falling to 14th place to lose her slim lead. So it was Kaisa's title! Her previous World Cup championship was in the 1010-2011 season. 

But that wasn't all for Kaisa. She became a double titleist in the Finnish national championships, winning the sprint and simultaneous start at Hämeenlinna. Her long season  ended in perfection with two more titles at an international exhibition meet at Tyumen in West Siberia.. She didn't miss one gun shot in either her 13.5K simultaneous start or her 10K pursuit victories. (I must confess to some advanced old age memory lapse, for I had previously mentioned Kaisa as an Olympic champion. Not true! I had confused her with  Satu Mäkelä-Nummela, who was the trap-shooting Olympic champion in the Beijing SUMMER Games in Beijing in 2008.)

While we're still at Siberia's Tyumen, let's scroll back to March 11, where at that site a Finnish women's ski orienteering team won a European Championship gold, defeating Russia by one second. The Finnish team consisted of  Mira Kaskinen, Sonja Mörsky and Mervi Pesu. Kaskinen gained a silver in the individual middle distance and Mörsky the bronze, with Tove Alexandersson of Sweden the goldster. In the men's relay the Finns won the bronze, with Janne Häkkinen, Staffan Tupis and Ville-Petteri Saarela.

Last issue we reported on the default accomplishment of Finnish wrestler Petra Olli in Sweden. Since  the previous FAR, she has won a European Championship bronze in the 58Kg class at Vantaa by defeating Germany's Luisa Niemeschev, 5-2. In the semis, Olli had lost to Russia's Valeria Koblova, 1-8. It was the first significant adult medal for Olli, 19, of Lappajärvi. As a junior she had three European golds and two World bronzes. Petra's grandfather Paavo Olli had three Finnish national championships to his credit in short distance track runs. For the men at the Vantaa Euros, Rami Hietaniemi scored the silver in the men's 85Kg class, with the title going to Zhan Beleniuk of Ukraine, 2-1. Earlier in the day Rami had blanked Germany's Jan Fischer in the semis, 6-0. Rami's previous best was a World bronze as a junior in 2011. 

Finland endured a tough loss to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Davis Cup tennis play at Helsinki's Tali, 3-2. ATP's top 50 player Jarkko Nieminen

was defeated by the visitors' star player Mirza Basic in five tough sets that took three hours, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-3, 8-6. B-H's Damir Dzumhur took Juha Paukku in their opening day singles.  So Finland was behind 0-2 until doubles play. In these, Finland closed the gap with Nieminen and Henri Kontinen taking Basic and Tomislav Orkic in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-2. In reverse singles, Nieminen tied it all up by disposing of Dzamhur, 7-5, 7-6 (2), 6-1.   Paukku put up a whale of a struggle as he stretched Basic to five sets, before going down, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. So Bosnia-Herzegovina goes on to its next Davis Cup round, while Finland is done for this season.

In track, Jussi Kanervo (below), 21, who's competing for the University of South Carolina on an athletic scholarship, had wins at Columbia in the 110m hurdles (13.77) and in the 400m hurdles (54.52).  Sanna Kämäränen, 28, won the women's discus at the University of Texas-El Paso Miners' spring meet with a Finnish outdoor season's best throw of 56.90 meters. She threw over four meters further than runner-up Gleneve Grange of Jamaica (52.35). 

The marathon running season is in full swing around rhe world. How have Finns fared so far? Tadedich Bekele of Ethiopia was the women's winner of the Berlin Half-Marathon in 1:10:05. In fifth place was Finnish MD Kukka-Maria Mustonen in 1:19:43. Mustonen's personal best full marathon was at Paris in 2:47:45 in 2011.   Another Ethiopian Atela Lenora Gedesha aced the Rome Marathon in 2:34:43, with Finland's Elina Junnila fifth in 2:56:24. Junnila was later second in the Miami Marathon in 3:00:32, won by Mariska Kaamer of Holland in 2:49:47. Annemari Hyvärinen, 35, ran a personal best for fourth slot in the Zurich Marathon in 2:39:54, Finnish season's best so far this year. She was runner-up in the Finnish national marathon championships in 2004. In 2010 Annemari became only the second Finnish woman to have climbed to the top of Mount Everest.  She currently resides in the United States.  

On the race-walking scene, Finland's

Aku Partanen finished sixth in the prestigious IAAF Race-walking Challenge 50K race in 3:54:54 at Dudence, Slovakia. Winner was Poland's Rafal Augustin in 3:45:12.