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.   

    

             

FREE Finnish Film Nite at UC Berkeley "Mies vailla menneisyyttä" / "The Man Without the Past" at 6:30 pm

FINNISH FILM NIGHT AT UCB!!! (FREE)

Aki Kaurismäki's

Mies vailla menneisyyttä
The Man Without the Past (2002)

 

Tues, March 11
6:30 PM
in Dwinelle Hall #B-4

     “A nameless man comes to town and gets beaten to death in the first possible moment. So begins this epic drama, this film – or should we say a dream? – of lonely hearts with empty pockets under the big sky of our Lord… or should we say birds?” -Aki Kaurismäki- ...See More

     Aki Kaurismäki: Mies vailla menneisyyttä/The Man Without the Past (2002) Tuesday, 3/1 6: 30 PM in Dwinelle B-4 "A nameless man comes to town and gets beaten to death in the first possible moment. So begins this epic drama, this film – or should we say a dream? – of lonely hearts with empty pockets under the big sky of our Lord... or should we say birds? 

     " -Aki Kaurismäki-"The impish Aki Kaurismaki, whose previous film was the black-and-white, silent" Juha, "fills this proletarian fable with music and color. The hero, a jowly, sad-faced welder (Markku Peltola), wakes up after a vicious mugging to find himself suffering from complete amnesia. But his state of dislocation turns out also to be a state of grace, as he finds friendship in a shipping-container shanty-town and love with a Salvation Army worker (Kati Outinen). The movie, with its easy, graceful humor and its plainspoken sense of decency, recalls the great populist films of the 1930 's and early 40 's: there are traces of Charlie Chaplin, Preston Sturges and Frank Capra in Mr. Kaurismaki's democractic aesthetic, and like them he has made a simple, poignant comedy whose intended audience is nothing less than the human race. "— A. O. Scott, New York Times

Upcoming Paper Presentation (FREE) by possible UC Berkeley's Finnish Studies Finalist. by University of Helsinki's Lieven Ameel on "Literary Perspective on Urban Development: The Fnnish Urban Novel & The Rhetoric of Helsinki's Waterfront Rgeneration"

The University of California at Berkeley is currently entertaining candidates for a Professor of Finnish Studies. Come support Finnish Studies and hear one of the candidate finalists!

    The Department of Scandinavian is pleased to present:  

  Lieven Ameel, University of Helsinki

Literary Perspectives on Urban Development:

  The Finnish Urban Novel  & The Rhetoric of Helsinki's Waterfront Regeneration  
Thursday,  Feb. 20, 2014 at 5:00 PM  219 Dwinelle Hall Reception to follow in Dwinelle 6321    

This lecture examines the potential of literary narratives for evaluating practices in urban planning and development. It will look at two specific cases of waterfront development in the context of the Finnish capital’s long shoreline: the plans for a Guggenheim museum in the Helsinki South Harbor, and the development of the former container harbor Jätkäsaari. An examination of the rich urban imaginaries in Finnish turn-of-the-twentieth-century literature will be juxtaposed with the generic rhetoric that was used, in particular, in the controversial plans for a Helsinki Guggenheim. I conclude by arguing that the shortcomings of these ambitious development projects could have been remedied by rigorous cultural and narrative mapping of the locations in question.

 

 
W i t h   q u e s t i o n s ,   p l e a s e   c o n t a c t   i s s a @ b e r k e l e y . e d u   o r   5 1 0 - 6 4 2 - 4 4 8 4 .

Read more about Ameel's musings in Helsinki On My Mind (2007)

Siitonen's Sports So Far : March 2014

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.

Gold medalist was USA's Jamie Anderson, who has been a consistent winner in practically all of the slopestyle competition during this current season. Rukajärvi has been a leading competitor as well, and a year ago won several of these snowboarding events. The President of Finland Saul Niinistö and his First Lady Jenni Haukio were in the stands to witness Enni's feats, and the next day sponsored a coffee and cake reception for her, as Rukajärvi was still dazed by her accomplishment.

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

Olympic Games BEGIN!!!

Let The Games begin!!!

Rukajärvi takes Silver in SlopeStyle!

Finnish snowboarder Enni Rukajärvi won a silver medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi on Sunday. After a nearly flawless second run, she came second behind the US's Jamie Anderson at this game's New Event.

Rukajärvi, 23, has previously won the SlopeStyle World Championship. the TTR tour and the X-Games.
 

One of the big contests to watch is to see who's going to win THIS YEAR's Hockey Championship. Finland took 3rd in both the women's and men's matches, in 2010. The Finnish women beat out Sweden in overtime at the last performance to take bronze and the US experienced a major upset by the Home Turf Canucks, who ended up with gold! Let the contest BEGIN!!!

Meanwhile, Janne Ahonen comes out of retirement to compete in the Men’s Normal Hill event in Sochi TONIGHT! Though Ahonen has plenty of hardware from many other World Championship events, he is hoping to earn his first Olympic medal in Sochi this year!

View Yle’s coverage of the event online streaming from Yle Areena. 

January Sports So Far

FARSptsFFeb2014

Before launching into a review of World Cup or Tour de Ski winter sports, We'll open with a World Championship tourney that excited Finns more than any other athletic endeavor during January. That's when the Finnishn Pikku Leijonat (Little LIons) Junior Men's hockey team won their first world championship since 1998 by upsetting an over­confident favorite Sweden  at Malmo on Jan 5 , in overtime, 3­2. The OT shot was by Rasmus Ristolainen to give it to the  Finnish lads. The new champions had defeated Canada in the semi­finals, who in turn lost to Russia for the bronze. The juniors consist of 18 and 19 year­olds. Finnish fans turned out in the thousands cheering their
young men as they deplaned at Vantaa.  

Next we'll go to  mid­ December to celebrate the World Cup win of Janne Korpi in the snowboarding half­ pipe at Kuusamo  Markus Malin bronzed and Antti Autti was fourth. Enni Rukajärvi was second in the snowboarding slopestyle at Breckenridge, USA, with Jamie Anderson, USA, the winner. We move to January for another snowboarding slopestyle at the Nanshan Open in China, when Finnish women Merika Enne and Kristina Nisula came in first and second. Thus, Enne won her first major race so far. Nisula was last year's winner.

Swedish women defeated Finland for the fourth straight time in the Salibandy (indoor floor ball) World Championships, 5­1,  at at Ostrava, Czech Republic. Finland took its second straight silver. The bronze went to Switzerland over the  Czech women , 4­3. Juulia Turkkila  won her first national figure skating championshp in Finland. Matthius Versius claimed the men's title.

Former Olympic Champion Biathlete Kaisa Mäkäräinen was second in a World Cup competition at Annecy,France, with Switzerland's Selina Bakarin the winner in this ski and shoot event. On Jan. 12, Kaisa was third at a World Cup Pursuit at Ruhspording. Czech Gabriela Soukalova  took gold. Mäkäräinen had three shooting penalties, two from a lying position, and one on her last stand­up shot for the third.

Riitta­Liisa Roponen successfully.

Jan 2014 Sports, Far So Good... by Harry Siitonen

Jan 2014 Sports, So Far So Good

 by Harry Siitonen

With the January FAR editorial deadline approaching, and the world winter sports season getting well underway, it looked like formerly prominent Finnish skiing athletes were getting nowhere on the international scene. Until the weekend of Jan.7­8  when former world great ski jumper Janne Ahonen, returning from retirement, earned his first top ten placement of the season, a ninth place at Lillehammer, Norway. Both he and his supporters were disappointed as he looked in shape to get a medal on his second try. His go signal was green, but the jump official, incidentally a Finn, made Ahonen stay in the ready position for the longest time before releasing him to start. Shoban Freund of Germany was the winner.

Sonja Mörsky, 22, took  a bronze in the middle distance ski orienteering event at Yläs, Finland on Jan 7 with Russia's Tatiana Rvatshiva the winner. Next day, in the ski orienteering sprint, Mörsky 
was sixth, with Finland's Marjut Turunen seventh, Rvayshiva again the champ. Then back to Lillehammer on Dec.,8, the Finnish women's relay team was second in the World Cup  4x5K cross­country race. Norway was the winner during the prevailing snowfall  which made for soft ground conditions. The Finnish team consisted of Aino­Kaisa Saarinen, Anne Kyllönen , Kerttu Niskanen, and Krista Lahteenmäki. Kyllönen testified to the toughness of Therese Johaug in leading Noway to victory. USA women bronzed.

Boxing also highlighted that weekend at Espoo where promising Finnish  lightweight hopefuls Edis Tatli, 26, and Eva Wahlström both won their bouts by unanimous decision over tough
opponents. Tatli, a Kosovan by birth, but now living and fighting in Finland, outpointed former two­time super­featherweight world champion Mizonke Fana, 40, of South Africa, in a 12­round
bout. The judges ruled for Tatli by votes of 117­111, 118­110, 118­110. Some critics thought Fan was too far over the hill in facing his much younger, quicker opponent. There's interest in promoting the undefeated Tatli's career in North America against stronger competition.

Wahlström, the European super­featherwight champion, came back from a grave illness that had sidelioned her since, March, 2012. She also had to recover from serious hand injuries. But her
hands were just fine as she defeated world kickboxing champion Anna Sikora of Poland in a six rounder by a 3­0 unanimous decision. It was a tough bout after a long layoff, with Wahlström
confessing that Sikora "was not an easy opponent." She is now planning to defend her European
title sometime this coming spring.

In early season skiing, Anne Kyllönen had cross­country wins on successive days at the Suomi Cup tornament at Rovaniemi, Nov.23­24. She was the classic xc sprint championon the first day, and next day in the classic 5k, 4.9 seconds ahead of second place Aino­Kaisa Saarinen. Kerttu
Niskanen was third, 26.7 seconds behind. In the men's 10K, Sami Jauhojärvi won by 30 seconds over Tero Similä.

2006 European steeplechase champion Jukka Keskisalo, 32, says he plans to stay competitive for another season or more. In a jovial mood, Jukka works at a job where he says he "enjoys his  achievements for all of ten minutes, but in athletics the good feeling lasts until evening. This (athletics) isn't the world's unhealthiest addiction," he adds. Jukka's main concern is to stay injury­ free.

Tuula Tenhonen was voted Finnish sailor of the year on the strengthof her World Championship silver medal placing in the radial class in October. Henri Manninen of Jyväskylä ran ninth in the Firenze (Italy) Marathon on Nov.24 with a personal best of 2:19:09, also the fastest Finnish men's time for 2013. Ukraine's Oleksandr Sitkovski was the winner in 2:09:14.  Elina Nurmenpää, 30, golfed  a personal best eighth place on the European Women's  Circuit Tour  stop at New Delhi, India with a one ­under par 215 . In the final round she hit  our birdies, marred  by one double bogey. Winner was Thailand's Thidapa Shivonna, with seven strokes fewer than  Tenhonen.

Movie FREE: "Road North (" Tie pohjoiseen")"

Come out and watch a free movie on the UC Berkeley Campus. The film will be shown Thursday 10/17 at 6.30 pm, in Dwinelle Hall (Dwinelle B-4,), free of charge. 

FILM: Tie pohjoiseen - Road North

A prodigal father returns to Helsinki to reconnect with the son he abandoned 35 years earlier and con him into a journey towards the Arctic Circle in this jaunty comedy. Overweight and shambling but still charismatic, Leo (Finnish national treasure Vesa-Matti Loiri) has lived to pursue pleasure, always fleeing when he encountered problems. Now, as he nears the end of his metaphoric road, he wants to patch up all the potholes, although in his own unconventional, not necessarily legal way. His son Timo is a concert pianist, and seems to be Leo's polar opposite: uptight, bound by rules, appointments and a constantly buzzing cell-phone. But out on the highway in the red Catalina convertible that Leo steals for the ride, Timo soon proves a chip off the old block.Director Mika Kaurismaki's best films have dealt with music or road trips. Road North combines both elements along with plenty of heart and was one of Finland’s biggest box office hits of the past year. 

"Mieletön Elokuu" FILM showing at Mill Valley Film Festival this Year Oct 11 & 13

Fri, Oct 11 @ 6:15 PM & Sun, Oct 13 @ 11:15 AM

at the Mill Valley Film Festival in San Rafael

Mieletön Elokuu (or August Fools) is the name of the Finn movie to be shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival this year on at Rafael 2 and  Rafael 3 in San Rafael. Starring is old Kaurismäki film heroine Kati Outinen who won Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival the same year that Aki Kaurismäki's Man Without a Past won the top feature film award at Cannes. Other Finnish film notables in this picture are Elena Leeve, Esko Salminen and Laura Birn. Director is Taru Mäkelä,. The setting is the "Festival of Friendship" in Helsinki in the 1962 Cold War era which brought tens of .thousands of young people from both sides of the Iron Curtain to celebrate. The place was crawling with both CIA and KGB agents. It's not as grim as it sounds as the film is essentially a romantic comedy. A Czech saxophonist ((Miroslav Etzler) arrives to pursue an old Finnish flame Elsa  (Outinen) who owns a millinery shop and is a part-time clairvoyant . The languages spoken are Finnish, Czech and English and the film has English subtitles. 

Read more about the film at http://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=64016~dc929e81-dd77-4c40-bcf3-47ec6a85c146&epguid=c612d5b0-2882-4166-821c-fe5114bf8af4&  

The Rafael screens are at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center at 1118 4th street in downtown San Rafael (between A and B Streets.) 

General Admission $14. Seniors 65+ and Students: $12.50. Advisedly, tickets should be reserved in advance on line at mvff.com and picked up at the Will Call window at the Rafael at show time. Or toll-free phone at 877.874.6833 voice mail. The main disadvantage to the phone order is an extra $10 convenience fee.  

Hope to see a lot of you there. 

-- Harry Siitonen

FILM CANCELED TONIGHT - NO POWER

You may have heard of the UCB explosion and power outage. Luckily, only one student was injured and already released from the hospital as far I know. No Finnish classes today in Dwinelle Hall & the Finnish Movie Night in Dwinelle is canceled tonight. Dwinelle Hall has NO power so far.

We will reschedule! 

Sirpa