All right, it’s been awhile again but I’ll put some stuff here from last competitions of winter, and things of this summer so far… Or something like that.
World championships Oslo, world cup Lahti & Planica
I’m not gonna write too much about these events, I think all know how things went but anyways:
So, in smaller hill (K90) my competition was total catastrophe, I don’t even know my final position. Everything actually went very well before competition (weather day or days before was excellent, few degrees minus Celsius and no wind). But in competition day weather was warmer and it rained pretty much sleet (not snow or rain) and for me it was disaster. I couldn’t handle the difficult in run and the game was over for me… Morgi won the gold and I actually don’t remember who was/were silver & bronze… But If someone cares and don’t remember either: www.fis-ski.com for results…
The next day myself and coach Pekka went to train for free training in K90 (we were quite worried of my jumps…) and again the weather was good and clear and my jumping was again like before competition: steady and pretty good even if I say it myself…
And in team event my jumping was in good level, I think I was in top3-5 of all jumpers but that didn’t satisfy me at all. I was actually pretty p***ed for myself because of my disaster jumps in individual competition.
And our team almost didn’t qualify for the final round! We were actually 8th so pretty bad result so far for team Fin. And the winners were… No reason even say it, silver went to Norway and bronze to Germany.
And then K120, that competition was very exciting, at least for me. I did my best jumps for the winter, or one of best at least and my final position was 5th. I jumped only 0,5 meters less than Amman who were 3rd and only 1 meter less than Schlierenzauer who won the gold before Morgi. So very good competition even the 5th place wasn’t actually heart warming…
And in team competition guess which nation won? Norway was second and Slovenia was third. In team competition there were very heavy wind and we all thought that if it would be possible to jump that competition in another day it would been cancelled but it was the last day so there we went…. Team Finland was… Bad.
So, no medals for Finland (again) and for me the only good thing was that 3 out of 4 competitions I did good job and I was able to jump in top5 level but that’s just losers whining… isn’t it? (smiley face with eye winking).
Ok, then to the last world cup competitions.
First Lahti, there were team competition and yes, Austria won. We were 6th, so hooray, little improvement… And then individual competition, my jumping was pretty good except the last one and I was 10th. Not so bad but I wanted so much more… Simon Amman won this one.
Then the finals in Planica. And I have to say that am I getting older or what? Because I have never been so nervous there. But it was still very enjoyable to jump there. King of the hills, no matter how big they build other hills. First competition was good for me but still little disappointment: 4th place. So close that podium place… Schlieri won and Morgi second and Koch third so Autrians ruled.. Again… And yes they won the team competition. Does anyone remember the times when they didn’t win everything?
The last competition was once again like it too often is in Planica: very windy and nerve breaking.
Kamil Stoch won that one and it was only one round. For me it happened again, impossible weather and 29th. After that I seriously started to think that the guy who shows the lights has something against me. The same s**t has happened too many times for one guy… Or this was again just losers whining but I was pretty angry for a while… But one though helped: season was over and now a little holiday…
Overall cup went quite OK for me, I was 8th but still I had too many oops, I did it again –moments during the season. Morgi won the overall like you all know so that’s that and then some other news…
Adam Malysz farewell –party’s
I was honored to be invited to great Adam’s farewell party’s but at the same time there were our own national championships. And of course I went to Adam’s party, how could I not to go there?
It was a huge party and event, unfortunately just before the ‘not so serious’ competition it started to snow extremely heavy and Adam and some other brave guys jumped off the record-jumps for the crowd.
Then it was a time for party, and boy, it was a Party with big P. It was great to hang out with fellow colleagues and just have a good time.
So, season ended and also many great careers ended also: Malysz, Ahonen, Uhrmann, Kuettel to name just a few.
Summer time:
I have to admit that I also thought to end my jumping career during the season but I just couldn’t stay away. Last winter was just too good and fun so here we go again…
For me this summer is/was pretty different more or less. I turned 30, I started to build a house and I got married, so yeah, I’m starting to grow ‘big’. Because of my house building project I didn’t take part summer GP’s but only one in Courchevel and that one was a blast. We had training camp before competition and there my jumping was pretty OK, but in competition I just made completely failed effort and that’s that.
And of course as you might already know, that just when Ville Larinto had his knee OK, he broke it again.
We couldn’t believe his luck but what can you do? Hopefully Happonen won’t brake anything when he’s coming back in a few weeks… Larinto’s injury was really bad news for our hopes for strong team results but like up there: what can you do?
Right now we are at training camp in Oberstdorf and things are going quite well, jumping is good and guys are feeling better for themselves after those quite bad competitions during summer GP as you all know didn’t go well at all for Finns. But we’ll show them in winter, won’t we?
And yeah, I know that it would be time to update some photos in gallery, and I’ll try to putsome. But I’m not really took any photo’s like.. never but maybe I’ll find some stuff somewhere to put them out.
OK, that’s it for now and next time it won’t be this long… And maybe I should write more about summer time than those couple of words up there. And maybe I will when I have more time...
Hello again and for a long time, It’s been a while (again) since I’ve written anything here and now I’m in Poland Zakopane. And because our this morning gym training was cancelled, I have couple hours free time and I though that I put some stuff here from this winter or something. And after couple of hours I realized that I’ve only written so little, and I’ll continue later… And now I’m middle of team tour (2.2.) and again I have few (two actually) hours of extra time to put more stuff that I almost have forgotten. Final stuff I wrote when I was (still am) in World Championships in Oslo. I had few hours extra time so why not?
So, first: We had our last summer training camp in Klingenthal 18.-22.10.
That was just basic training and some last updates for our/my equipments. It went pretty well for us all I think. After that camp we had our physical tests in Jyväskylä Race- and Sport Research Center 29.10.
For me the tests went well, I was almost better shape when I was young and beautiful.
After tests it was just waiting when winter comes, of course before that we had our traditional so called voluntary work at Puijos hills with our club athletes and coaches. That is just that we put snow nets on landing area so that snow stays on there. And we did put nets on all hills: K28, K64, K90 and K120.
And yes, it is pretty damn hard to put those things on landing zones…
9.-18.11 we had our winter training camp in Rovaniemi and Ruka before world cup starts.
For me jumping continued like it was at summer for last days, pretty good. Actually better.
And this year it was little bit easier mentally because now I had (almost first time ever) done all necessary testing etc at summer so now it was just jumping and not last minute equipment updates like usually.
13.11 we had traditional First Snow Competition in Rovaniemi, that went better for me than ever actually.
I won (I’ve never won this competition, always second or third) and even this was just national competition, it of course felt good to start season this well.
After that we went to Ruka, and must say that there were awesome conditions almost every day for ski jumping.
And for me it was I think best training camp ever, every jump was good or even better so feeling started to be a little excited for world cup…
After few days at home it was time to go back to Ruka (23.11). And because it’s the grand opening for Nordic winter sports and it’s in Finland, we had before normal world cup things, some extra stuff to do.
Press, and photo shoots and meetings with sponsors.
After those things back to business and 26. day it was first official jumps in world cup, official trainings. For me jumping was like it was in training camp: good and relaxed, but in qualification round almost the worst happened: when green light went on and coach send me away, suddenly there came heavy wind (some told that it was 10 -15 m/s) and I almost fell badly. And qualifications were moved to different day. …Or was it? Hard to remember, if not I think someone will tell if I’m wrong.
Next day it was team competition, team Finland was: Me, Ville Larinto, Kalle Keituri and Janne Ahonen.
And of course it was some wind troubles time to time but not anything big. And try to guess which country won team competition? Second was Norway and little surprise was that Japan was third. We were 4th and that was ofcourse disappointment for us. For me jumping was not that good and I have to say that yesterdays almost falling jump hunted me little bit.
Next day (28.11) was first qualification which was cancelled or moved to this morning. For me jumping was again good, that few days bad jump/wind didn’t hunted my mind anymore. And of course you all saw Harri Olli’s jump and finger episode after that, he got warning and one competition penalty for it. And Janne Ahonen episode if someone didn’t know: there was different time system for jumpers in tower and coaches for some reason on Janne’s jump. That clock which tells how much time there is red light, yellow and green light. And when coaches clock was still 7-8 seconds left, tower clock already went red and Janne was disqualified. Even when the race organizers admitted that it was their fault not jumper(s)!(?)
Well, that’s that and then it was invidual competition and after few years I had pretty good result: fifth place. Ville Larinto completed good day by being 6th. Kofler won, Morgi second and Amman 3rd. Who are those guys?.. Complete results can be found www.fis-ski.com, if someone cares.
Then 30.11. – 1.12. was Kuopio competition. I was pretty excited about it because now my jumping was pretty good (very good comparing what it has been since 2007 or 2008 or…).
Qualification day nothing that unusual happened that I could remember it.
Competition day happened little unusual thing but I could get use to it. It was quite windy again in Puijo but direction was pretty steady and wind speed didn’t change so much so it was actually quite good weather what I can remember. But that was not the thing what was unusual: It was first double victory for us Finns since Zakopane 2006! Ville Larinto won and I was second. By 0,1 points. And no, I wasn’t upset to lose to a fellow Finn and a rising star like Ville. It was very enjoyable moment after so long time. Amman was third again, behind was Kofler 5th, Morgi 6th… Results once again here: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/skijumping/results.html .
After competition I went to see Ville Kantee’s gig in a local bar called Malja. Good gig and no, I were there by car…
Next morning (2.12.) we drove to Helsinki, couldn’t fly because Finnair crew were on a strike, again, and there we flew to Oslo/Lillehammer. Our team in Lillehammer was me, Larinto, Koivuranta and Ruuskanen.
Ahonen stayed in Finland to practice more.
In quali, nothing worth mention, 4 Finns took part and 3 made it to final competition. Well maybe it’s worth to mention that wonder boy Schlierenzauer was jumping pretty badly, in all competitions so far actually. But as you know by now, he came back with form like 2009 again……
In competition, well I’ll just say the results. I don’t remember did something worth mentioning happened or not… Morgi won and Norways Evensen was 2nd and Hilde 3rd. I was 7th and Larinto 8th. Good day for me and Ville, when you are in top10 it’s always pretty good…
Next day’s competition.. Well Morgi won again but this time Larinto was second and Amman 3rd. I were 6th so very good for Ville and pretty good for me. Results once again can be foundwww.fis-ski.com.
So far so good for me (and Ville). I haven’t had start for the season) like this ..never?
And then after couple of days home training, we travelled to Harrachov. Team this time: me, Larinto, Muotka and Keituri. And yeah, we actually ‘knew’ before things even started that it’s gonna be hard to pull this weekend through. Heavy wind and heavy snow. Organizers were able to pull off two training rounds but that was it, just waiting and waiting the whole weekend but just snowing and blowing…
And must say that, that official wind indicator which show to TV spectators how much there is wind and what calculates those compentation points showed that there were 3-4 m/s wind when there actually were 8-15 m/s! So do the math and figure out how trustful that system is…
After that tourist trip of Harrachov, was Engelberg competition in Switzerland. And there were extra competition to replace one cancelled competition from Harrachov. That was held Friday. This time our team was me, Larinto, Ahonen and Muotka. Again I’ll skip the quali day, because, who cares?
So, Friday was extra competition day and it was only one round. And for me once again very good day, I were 4th. And Morgi won again, Kofler 2nd, Loitzl 3rd. Larinto was 11th. Ahonen was still struggeling with his technical problems and landed 24th.
And Saturday races continued, and again Morgi won. Adam Malysz was on the podium after a while being 2nd and I took my second podium place this season 3rd. So great day for me and also for Larinto, he was 5th.
Muotka and Ahonen didn’t made so well, positions 32nd and 34th. It was actually Morgi’s fourth win in a row, at that point it looked that he’s gonna break the record of six wins. I’m not sure but if I remember correctly that six wins have had Ahonen, Schlierenzauer, Morgi and myself (those were the days…).
But in Sunday Morgi’s winning streak snapped, but the winner was another Austrian (how else?) Kofler.
Morgi was 2nd, and Malysz was 3rd. I had problems on the first round, I were only 23rd but I managed to rise to 6th place after second round so not so bad. Also Larinto had problems on the first one (30th) nut he also climbed to 14th. Other Finns Ahonen and Muotka did better this time by being 20th and 24th. Ofcourse for Ahonen that not good enough as we all know.
And must say that again official wind indicator showed that there were steady almost zero wind but in reality, there were pretty changing weather, wind were everything between 1-2 m/s head to 3-4 m/s back so just mentioned again that wind compensation is sometimes not so far from the truth, but usually it’s not even close.
Ok, enough of that, now first part of world cup was behind us and for me it has been like back in the days.
My positions before Four hills tournament were very steady and every competition I have been in top10
(5th, 2nd, 7th, 6th, 4th, 3rd and 6th) so the season almost couldn’t started better. Also Ville Larinto were very constant and good, In Kuopio he won and also 2nd place and many top10 places. I actually were 3rd in a overall just before Four hills. But as we know, that were going to change. Unfortunately. (I mean the accident in Garmisch… Not my more or less bad efforts in some races)
But before that, also have to mention that Larinto jumped so well that now we Finns had fifth spot for the world cup and Anssi Koivuranta jumped continental cup so well that he got us sixth spot. So we had six jumpers to the Four hills. At this point everything seemed so great…
After Engelberg I had some training days at home and ofcourse some Christmas time with family.
And then: The Four Hills Tournament 29.12.2010-6.1.2011.
This tournament was my 13th (97-98,99-00,00-01,01-02,02-03,03-04,04-05,05-06,06-07,07-08,08-09,09-10 and 2010-2011). Quite many tours, too bad I wasn’t in tour 98-99. Otherwise nice straight… But is/was this my last tour? Can’t know that yet.
And our Team in this tour: Me, Larinto, Ahonen, Keituri, Koivuranta and Ruuskanen.
Ok then, In Oberstdorf there was traditional press thing for current top3 in world cup (and I was 3rd at the time! jee) and for last Tours top3 (Ahonen also there, how else?). After that basic routines like always, some gym trainings and then officials and qualification. And like almost everytime before, some best jumpers skipped the qualification so that they can make sure that they jump at the end of first round. Actually me and Ville (Larinto) joked about that situation because for example Amman, Morgi and Kofler didn’t take part that of course now we both jump top2 in quali and ‘fight’ against them. And so it happened: Larinto won and I was 2nd in quali.
In competition I jumped against Kofler, and he beat me but I was one of so called lucky losers with my 125 meter so I made it to final round, but Larinto’s race was very bad. He had terrible luck with the wind and he didn’t make it second round at all. Also Koivuranra and Ahonen jumped well enough to be in the final round. Second round I did one of my best jumps in this season (137m) and I rised from position 7. to 2nd place! And Morgi won naturally…
After this we went to legendary Garmisch-Partenkirchen. How much did that hill cost by the way? 100 million euro? And yet no wind nets anywhere. I’ve always wondered how they build 50-100 million euro hills in Europe but never they build wind nets (and they are cheap).
Anyways, qualification went pretty ok for us, myself and Larinto jumped positions 12th and 13th. Also Koivuranta and Ahonen did better this time. But in competition after great jumps of Anssi & Janne, first Larinto jumped too long (wind started to get heavier and he had too good head wind and the starting gate was too high for guys like Ville) and hurted his knee. After that it really started to get windy, my jump was disaster (122m & out of final round) also guys like Kofler almost fell and Morgi had also bad conditions. At that time it looked that my tour was over but lucky me they cancelled final round, wind started to get dangerous. After competition the Austrian head coach was pretty mad… Actually, almost all coaches (and jumpers were..) Amman won this one round thing and Pavel Karelin was second, Malysz was 3rd. After few hours we did get info from hospital and the worst case scenario did happened: Ville Larinto injured his knee so bad that he had to go to surgery and season was over for him. We were everybody so pissed because of this but what can you do?
So with pretty down feelings rest of us went to qualification in Innsbruck. Felt weird to be ‘alone’ on the tower now. But game goes on and qualification day was quite good for me (3rd) naturally Morgi didn’t take part, and neither did Amman.
In competition I continued my good jumping by being 5th but Morgi was the name of this day (again).
After ¾ competitions positions were 1) Morgi 2) Amman 3) Malysz 4) Me. So even though Morgi had superior lead, positions 2-4 were open, so I had a good feeling to go to Bischofshofen.
Bischofshofen hill is very different compaering to any hill, very long and so called gentle in run makes it so different that I have always liked it. Even so that I have been successful there only one or two times. Even now the hill showed that it’s not the easiest one. I had problems pretty much in all my jumps but I was able to pull myself in top10 (qualification). Also 3 other Finns made it to competition.
So only falling could actually destroy Morgi’s dream of Four hills and he didn’t fall. And he won the title, no big suspense on that one this year. But positions 2-4 was another thing. Of course I failed this time (again in Four Hills) and also Malysz dropped out of top3. Hilde won the competition and rised 3rd place. I was in good position after first round but something happened and my final position was 22nd. And my rank was 7th in Four Hills. Not so terrible but who cares? My goal was to be in top3 and it didn’t happen. It was a bad day for us Finns completely, only Ahonen (20th) and my self were in final round…
So, Four Hills Tour: 1) Morgi 2) Amman 3) Hilde 4) …who cares about positions out top3?
But anyway, for me the Tour was pretty much what it has been when I’m in good shape. 1-2 very good competitions (Oberstdorf 2nd & Innsbruck 5th) and 1-2 total failures (Garmisch 34th & Bisch. 22nd). Only one time out of 13 I have been able to do good results in all four races, and that was 2001-02. Still I was in good feeling that my jumping was still top5-10 level pretty constantly.
After Four Hills, only me and Olli Muotka went straight to ski flying in Harrachov. Rest of the team went home for more training. I had very good feeling before Harrachov, flying hill and jumping was in very good level, or that is what I thought…
7.-9.1. Harrachov:
Only one ok jump for me in all weekend!? And that was my first training jump. I did 189,5m & 4th (if I remember). After that: 182m, 141m, (23rd), 159,5m and 136m!! (29th). What happened? Don’t have a clue, or yeah, little clue but nothing big enough to explain all this humiliation! I used to be very good in ski flying but I think those days are long gone, last time I did good in ski flying was 2007 or something… Who won those competitions? Koch and Morgi? Don’t even remember anymore, www.fis-ski.com has results again if interested. And oh yes, Olli Muotka jumped pretty ok in both days. And yes, it was foggy and wet and windy in Harrachov… ..again.
After Harrachov I decided to skip the competition in Sapporo (14.-16.1.). I felt that I need little rest and training in my home hill. Also I was sure that conditions in Sapporo will be (and they were) windy and more or less heavy snow. Finnish team was H.Olli, A.Koivuranta and O.Muotka. For Finnish guys that trip was bad. You can check the results: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=JP&raceid=3036 . Severin Freund took his first win in Sapporo and Kofler won second one. When was the last win for Germans? 2006?2007? Anyway, nice that they had success after so long time.
20.-23.1. Zakopane:
In Zakopane we had 6 jumpers to take part, Ahonen, Koivuranta, Muotka, Keituri, Sami Niemi and myself.
My jumping was very good in trainings once again, like last year in Zakopane. And like last year it didn’t last for competition. Also in Zakopane we jumped extra competition to replace which was cancelled in Harrachov. What should I say about my competitions? Only that I perhaps tried too much to be on the podium, that always (trying too much) wrecks the jump. My positions were 8th, 13th and 15th, ok maybe that’s not disaster but not what I wanted. And the guys who succeed: Adam Malysz won the first race. It was his 39th win, or was it already 40th? Anyway, achievement that only maybe Schlierenzauer has possibility to beat. Of course we all know that Nykänen holds the record (46 wins). Amman won the second and surprise, Zakopanes home town jumper Kamil Stoch won his first ever on Sunday. Can someone name other Polish winner other than Malysz? 10 seconds time to know…
And after very bad season so far Harri Olli told (25.1.) that he’s going to quit his jumping career. And 31.1. it was official, he reported to Finnjumping Ry and WADA that it’s done. So, is he gonna make come back some day? Who knows, but I really don’t believe it. Season 2009-10 Harri told many times after bad competitions that he’s tired of this and it’s not fun anymore. But still…?
Ok, that’s that and then it was Team Tour, 28.1.-6.2. Willingen, Klingenthal and Oberstdorf.
And some happy news for a while was that Janne Happonen made his comeback in this Tour. Rest of our team: Me, Keituri, Koivuranta, Muotka and Ruuskanen.
Maybe everybody already knows this but still: Janne broke pretty much everything of his knee in June and this was his first competition after that. But first there was team competition, our team was Koivuranta, Muotka, Happonen and me. I had some problems with my jumping day before in trainings but in this team competition I was able to do good effort, also Happonen jumped great. But that wasn’t enough to pull us on podium. Germany was second and Norway third. We were only fifth. I’m not even mentioning which nation won, it’s starting to get boring…
After that invidual competition, and I did quite ok. Two decent jumps and 7th place. Severin Freund took his second win but name of the day was, in my opinion, Janne Happonen. First competition after bad injury (actually you could say after two bad injuries, because 2008 he had terrible fall and broke his thigh bone) and 8th place! Very nice. So two Finns in top10. Damn that Larinto’s injury! We could have three top10 jumpers without it… If someone wants to know total results: www.fis-ski.com or www.berkutschi.com either way…
Then we moved to Klingenthal. There Happonen continued his good jumping, also I had good training day in qualification day. Anssi Koivuranta in the other hand had huge problems, only one effort and he decided to skip qualification and go home. He fell in Willingen qualification and hurt his hip and after that had huge problems. Kalle Keituri showed some improvement after difficult season so far in qualification.
Competition day: some disturbance of the wind this time, some jumpers had problems especially in first round. But Happonen jumped well and also I did ok, we both were in top10 after first round. Then, again, something happened in my jump and I was only 28th… Happonen was good again and was 9th. And Stoch took his second win, other places went to Morgi, Amman, Kofler, Schlieri… never heard those guys before…
At this point I talked with Pekka, our head coach, and we looked videos, wondered why there’s time to time those huge downs in my jumping. One jump can be in top5 and next can be out of top20 just like that and they don’t even look so bad. We realized small observation: I did take updated bindings in Four Hills Tour, and they are/were perfect when jumping is perfect and condititions are also perfect. But as we all know, there’s no such thing as perfect jump or weather. Those new bindings seemed to be too vulnerable when I make just small mistake or there’s just little wind. So we/I decided that I’ll take those so called older versions which I used before Four Hills. Don’t know if we were totally wrong in our ‘smart’ idea but in Oberstdorf with older and familiar things I had no problems anymore. Older versions might not be as ‘perfect’ but they are more steady and not so vulnerable. If some one knows what I mean.
So, in Oberstdorf it was ski flying time. I’ve always liked Oberstdorf flying hill. That and Planica are my favourites. First qualification day, and Happonen did great again: He won qualification by jumping 210,5m.
My jumping was steady and quite good also, even if I might not be as good ski flier as I used to be when I was younger and faster and better looking.
Competition day condititions looked ok, but there were some big enough differences with the wind especially in final round. For example Happonen had back wind in his both jumps and he was 20th. I was one of many guys who had not so great wind in final round but I still managed to be 9th. Not bad but still. Also Malysz, Kofler, Amman, Morgi etc. had bad condititions. If you watched this competitions you perhaps noticed that quite many jumpers (for example all the above) had over +10 wind points and that is simply too much, especially in ski flying hill. Sometimes or actually more often it feels for us jumpers (and coaches) that now when we have this ‘great’ wind compensation system, the jury doesn’t even look out if there’s a bad wind because they trust this wind calculation system totally blindly. I can tell you, it really doesn’t comfort jumper when there’s totally shit wind and race is over because of it and you get +7,8 points for the wind… But anyway, enough of this wining. Who won? Oh yes, Martin Koch. One of these days top3 ski flyers. And Schlierenzauer was on the podium after pretty difficult season so far (for him).
Next day we had team competition. Our team was: Happonen, Muotka, Keituri and me.
I don’t mention which nation won or was second. You know them. But we had good fight against Germany for third place. And of course we lost it but anyway… We were actually ahead them just before my jump but Freund jumped amazing jump (218m) against my (207m) and that was it. Of course we were pissed because this might be our last actual chance to be on podium in team competition this season. But no can do… So do I have to say which nation won this team tour title? That’s right, I don’t. I’m not pissed but it really get’s ‘old’ right? No nation haven’t had any chance against them in these 5 years. More or less.
Well, I can always remember the days 2000-2003, those were the days…
Vikersund 11.-13.2. (biggest hill in the world, so far…)
We were all very excited to jump in Vikersund because it simply is bigger than Planica. Our team was me, Happonen, Ahonen, Muotka.
But my weekend wasn’t that exiting, only couple of times over 200 meters and this season I totally lost the battle with Malysz for being first jumper who jumps over 100 times over 200 meters. Actually Kranjec and Koch went ahead on those statistics also but who cares… What should I say about that weekend? Evensen was almost unstoppable: 2 times world record (243 and 246,5 meters!) and also Schlierenzauer was amazing. They shared victory in first day and second day they took places 1 and 2.
Funny thing also was that there almost were not enough gates because if these guys, race organizers actually had to build more gates for them.
So, my weekend score: 3 times over 200 meters and best jumps only 217,5 and 218 meters. My competition places were 10th and 9th. Of course not so bad but it really showed me finally that my days as one of the greatest ski fliers were over and done. Maybe I’m getting too old…? But Happonen was great especially final day: He jump new Finnish record (240m) and was 6th. So there went my last great achievement finally!.. ;) But there was a prize for him of that as you maybe know now, he hurt his injured knee littlebit on that great jump. I mean Happonen.
Also my opinion about the hill is that the title, king of the hills stays in Planica. Why? because Planica is so unique, the flying path, if there’s a word for it, is so high in Planica comparing to this hill that even jumpers fly further they fly lower so the feeling is still more scary and great in Planica. But that’s just my opinion, I didn’t jump 240 or more like Evensen, Schlieri, Happonen, Koch. They might say differently.
So in my heart, Planica is still The King. And I heard rumors that next year they build planica hill even bigger!...
So, now the world cup is in small break because of World Championships in Oslo. And we had few days training camp in Lillehammer before Oslo but I’ll get back about Oslo and rest of season later. By now (2.3.) of course we all know how K90 went for me and others but more that later… Quite much writing but there was also a quite long break of putting anything here so here it was until later!...
Hello there, It’s been a while since I’ve written here. Whole summer actually but now I’ll put here some stuff what has been going on…
So, at the end of may, like I wrote earlier, it was published that Pekka Niemelä is our new headcoach and he also started to coach me again in personal level (like he did 1999-2002).
It was also great that now we (A-team) have about 5 test/training camps this summer, comparing that last summer we had none (well, we had one but without testing).
And like earlier blog said, Pekka and Ville (Kantee) managed to get Gerhard ‘Gatsch’ Hofer (not related to Walter…) in our team. And working with Gatsch has been great, he’s thinking and developing our equipments all the time and I’m testing his ideas in practise. Ofcourse some of them won’t work but some do and they work great. I mean suits, skies, bindings.. etc.
That’s also the main reason I’ve been jumping this summer as much as I did about ten years ago. Training on jumping hill has now a purpose, test new stuff for the winter. It has never (almost never) been like this in Finnish team, mainly because we don’t have any money to buy stuff for testing. But this summer there’s been testing and I like it, it makes jumping more interestingand it feels that now we have a chance to compete against other nations because of testing and developing new stuff.
But don’t get me wrong, I have to say that I (andI think every other Finnish athlete) would prefer that ski jumping would be just jumping. Ski jumping has been going in these 5 years (or so..) more and more like formula 1 technology but what can you do? Everything developes, so does ski jumping and if you can’t keep up, you’ll loose and drop out.
Ok, enough of that. Next some dates and more diary based stuff or whatever…
25.5.
We had our physical tests at Race- and Topsports Research center in Jyväskylä.
Tests are pretty simple, they measure bodyfat and weight. Take some blood samples just to make sure that we are not dying or anything. After that we measure how high we can jump with straight legs with 0kg, 10kg, 30 kg and 50kg. And after that, how fast we can run 20 meters. I’m nottelling any results but only that I was too fat, too slow and too tired. Or was it too old?..
16.-22.6.
We had our first training/test camp in Courchevel. I was focusing on testing different ski brands.
Before this summer I have jumped my entire jumping career with Atomic skies, but after Planica they informed that they will stop producing ski jumping skies, and during this summer there came news from Atomic that they continue to make skies if someone wants but they don’t test or develop them anymore so it was pretty easy decision to try some different brands. But now to think about it, it would’ve been great to jump entire career from start to end with Atomic but anyways…
So I tested Elan skies and Fischer skies there.
25.-26.6. MIDSUMMER DAY(‘s)
If someone doesn’t know this is Finnish national ‘drink two days maximum amount of alcohol’ -holiday. I’m not telling did I do that or not.
29.6.-3.7.
Our second training camp where at Ruka. This camp we were focusing testing suits.
‘Gatsch’ had some improvement ideas and we tested them. After our camp there was national Finlandia tour competition. And surprise, it was pretty windy… I don’t remember the results, only that Juha-Matti Ruuskanen won and I was 6th. If someone is interested more: http://www.hiihtoliitto.fi/@Bin/13637065/FINNJUMPINGCUP1tulokset030710.pdf
14.-20.7.
This time I was away for a few days. After season 2009-10 I was supposed to go to Australia for three weeks but that damn volcano on Iceland cancelled everything so this was kinda my spare holiday… I made reservations and payments after I checked that there’s no competitions or training camps during that time but as soon as I had paid the trip, Finnish ski federation changed the competition dates (Kuopio & Lahti national competitions) and they were held during this time. But my ‘boss’ let me go on holiday anyways… So that’s why I didn’t take part Kuopio or Lahti’s race.
…And I was in Barcelona, nice little town…
21.-24.7.
After my little holiday, I went to Vuokatti. There was junior ski jumping camp for kids called Mäkikarnevaalit. And I was one of three coaches for the kids. This is small tradition that few of us jumpers always coach every year kids at this junior camp. It’s pretty nice, makes you feel old(er).
Summer Grand Prix –Hinterzarten, Courchevel & Einsiedeln-
This was my first time since 2006, that I’m taking part Summer GP in Hinterzarten. Other guys were: Harri Olli, Kalle Keituri, Olli Muotka and Janne Ahonen (Ahonen jumped only in Hinterzarten and Larinto & Kovaljeffafter that). In practise rounds we all noticed that Polish jumpers, not only Malysz, were jumping actually amazingly well. And only Morgi was from team Austria in this three nations tour.
In our team Keituri was jumping very constantly, my jumps were… well good and so and so…
First there was Team Competition and Polish guys were very strong, they won clearly before Norway and Germany. Finnish guys were 5th and Austria 6th! But ofcourse they had more or less B-team there. I did 2 jumps out of three quit well and Kalle was strong again in our team. If someone wants, check here: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?event_id=28428&cal_suchsector=JP
Next day it was individual competition, with very heavy rain. At trial round I did quit good jump but in competition, as usual, I screw my jumps more or less and my position was 27th.
Also Ahonen and Olli failed and they didn’t make to final round, but Kalle was jumping very well:
He took his first podium place in this level (world cup / summer GP) and was 3rd. Winner was Adam Malysz and 2nd Morgi. Not a big shocker..
After Hinter we travelled to Courchevel. But before, a little mention that if someone didn’t know, after Simon Amman’s domination last winter, almost every nation have been trying to build or buy a binding system like Amman had last winter (Olympics). And in Courchevel we had first time something different binding system. Nothing secret or revolutionary just something same that almost everyone else were already using. I’m sure that you’ve seen this on tv. That weird stick behind boots. Anyway, we got this for Courchevel and it felt pretty weird but in a good way. It takes, or took, some time to get use to this kind of thing but in trainings and competition I had a good feeling for it. Trial round good for me and also first round (4th) but second round too much effort for my skills but still 7th, my best summer result in …hmm 4 years (?). Daiki Ito won, Morgi was 2nd and –used to be nordic combiner- Zauner was 3rd.
Next was Einsiedeln. And a little comment about the hill. There is plenty of mountain hillsides where they could’ve build a (cheaper) jumping hill, and it would’ve been better protected from the wind but instead, they build it in the middle of a field? I just don’t get it.
And ofcourse it was windy as hell in a competition day (like every year) and we jumped only one round. I almost fell and was 47th (oh yeah) but I wasn’t frustrated or anything, in trainings jumping was pretty good and also trial round and so on. For me the main thing was on this small GP tour that I was able to jump with the best and wasn’t shamed my efforts. Anyway, Ito won again and Adam was 2nd , Maciej (also from Poland) was 3rd. Harri Olli and Kalle Keituri also jumped well with heavy wind and splitted 5th position.
And you know where to find more results if you want.
19.-21.8. Wisla GP (POL)
After Einsiedeln I travelled home to train and test more stuff, and other guys went straight to Wisla to compete there. If someone didn’t know, they (re)build a new hill there and it was complete 2008. And this was first (hope I’m not telling complete crap here) GP/WC competition there. I heard that it’s a nice hill. Complete results:
Finnish A-team training camp, Oslo/Trondheim (NOR).
After two weeks of training at home we travelled to Norway to jump in a new Holmenkollen K90 hill and test new stuff at Trondheim K120. First we trained two days at Holmenkollen and must say that new K90 hill wasn’t all bad. I usually don’t like smaller hills at all. But it was pretty windy at both days. And I’m afraid that when there’s gonna be World championships, it’s the same problem. But hope not.
In Trondheim we got our own new binding system (don’t ask what kind, I just work here…),
nothing amazing or breathtaking revolutionary system but still, OUR own thing…
I tested it the whole time we were in Trondheim and I liked it. Still a prototype and not completely ready but for me one more small step for the better I hope.
23.-25.9.
After the days at Norway, we pretty much went straight to Espoo and tested some different things in windtunnel. Flying position, how the skies should be when flying, all that stuff. We spend the whole day there ‘flying in a tunnel’.
After that it was Finnish national championships in Lahti. Friday was team event in K90, (competition between ski clubs) Lahti ski club won (they always win, they have Ahonen, Larinto, Keituri etc), Puijo ski club was 2nd (that’s my team, and my brother Jussi was also in team even he quit jumping after season 2008/09. Quite funny if think it..) and Ounasvaara ski club was 3rd(included Harri Olli, Olli Muotka).
Next day was individual competition, Kalle Keituri won, I was 2nd, Harri Olli 3rd and Janne Ahonen was 4th. And that was very rare day in Lahti: no wind what so ever at all!..
Complete results (and check out who was 5th and almost embarrassed as jumpers pretty badly):
At summer GP competitions jumpers usually test different kind of equipments more or less and so have I tested, earlier I tested skies, then bindings. This weekend I had couple of new suits with diiferent materials and cuttings, designed by ‘Gatsch’.
In Liberec we all in our team had some problems for some reason, but I did pretty ok in qualifications. Even though I fell, my distance was about top10 so I wasn’t too upset.
In trial round I also did ok, distance good (top10 about) but then I don’t know what the hell happened. I jumped some 113m and 112m and my positions at the end was 29th!
And best finn was Kalle 17th.. So bad day for us. Adam Malysz won, Tom Hilde was 2nd and Kamil Stoch was 3rd. What have those Polish dudes been eaten? Or in this case, how less they have been eaten...?
Next morning we drove Klingenthal and right from the first jump I had better feeling.
Trainings went well and qualification went good (as usual), I was 7th.
And in competition every jump was more or less good. The wind was pretty hard and unstable but I had no problems (maybe in second round some difficulties), some top jumpers weren’t so lucky. And Adam Malysz even was disqualified because he jumped when there were red light.
So I was 8th and Kamil Stoch won (again with those Polish guys, if not Adam, someone else comes!). Daiki Ito won the whole Summer GP even he wasn’t even in Liberec or Klingenthal.
Kalle was best of us, 8th. My final overall position was 26th, not so good but hey, it’s summer time. For me that’s better than what it has been in 4 or 5 years…! Complete results are here:
So that’s pretty much the whole summer there, we still have one more summer training camp in Klingenthal (18.-22.10) but in Finland it’s starting to get so cold that the hills are getting closed for this summer and in a few days every hill is closed. Then, after our final training camp, we just wait when it starts to snow again, and then it’s living in Lapland again…
Hello, it's been a while since I've been writing here so here's some stuff after the Games and rest of the season.
So after olympics there was Nordic Tournament (5.-14.3). It was held in Lahti, Kuopio, Lillehammer and Holmenkollen. For me, the tour started like so and so -level, in Lahti I was 16. and in Kuopio 10.
But in Norway pretty much everything I tried to do went wrong, so much wrong. In Lillehammer I didn't even make it to final round and in Holmenkollen I only managed to get some 'loser' points. And do I even have to say that Simon Amman continued where he left at the olympics and won all four competitions in a row. And yeah, now it's time to brag a little bit, me and Simon are the only ones who has done it. Nowadays I don't have much to brag about so I'll brag with things which happened a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
So anyway, Simon won the tour and the overall worldcup. Here's where you can check results if interested: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/skijumping/results.html
And I have to mention that Ahonen hurt his leg so much at the olympics that he only jumped Lahtis competition and skipped the rest of the tour. And also that old gentleman Malysz did quite impressive jumping and was pretty much all the time second behind invicible Amman.
Here's the overall positions also: 1) Amman 2) Schlierenzauer 3) Morgenstern ...11) Ahonen ...14) Olli ...27) Me. And in nations cup we were fourth so our season was pretty f-d up, and there are pretty clear reasons for that, like our ex-headcoach told to press: no money, no honey... So of course I'm saying, with little dose of sarcasm, that we, specially me, are SOO good that we only need few million dollars more to win everyone in everywhere..!
Enough of that,
after the tour (and world cup) it was skiflying world championships (18.-21-3.) in Planica. Well, Amman won there gold medal also and for us Finns it was, like the whole season, pretty much downhill. Harri was 11. Happonen 15. I was 17. and Ahonen only 27.
In team event we did better and I have to say that bronze medal has never tasted that good what it did there after all difficulties what we had during the season. And we had first timer Olli Muotka who replaced Ahonen, And he did his part well.
Austria won team gold (biggest suprise the whole season) before Norway.
And a little point of view that Adam Malysz went pass me on number of jumps over 200 meters in the world. I don't know who cares or counts that, apparently someone, because they allways mention that for me at Planica..?
So, after a long and difficult and poor season we had atleast something we could be happy about. And ofcourse jumping in Planica is itself so great that it was a prize just to jump there...
But we still had our national championships after Planica in Rovaniemi and Ruka (27.-28.3).
In Rovaniemi we did K90 and I was 3rd, Ahonen 2nd and Ville Larinto won. Little comfort for him after even more difficult season than I had. Rukas competition was cancelled because of heavy wind and snow. And I must say that the wind was the most extreme was I've never saw there, more than 20 m/s...
After the season we had a little vacation time and I was supposed to go to Australia. But as you all know, volcano in Iceland erupted and the ashcloud canceled all flights and I couldn't go anywhere... So that too went down to drain for me...
Then other news, our headcoach Janne Väätäinen retired from Finlands coaching and Pekka Niemelä took his place. For me it was nice that Pekka is back to coach us and me. He was my personal coach 1999-2002 before he went to work in Japan and France, so it's nice to work with him again. And also it was great to hear, thanks to Pekka and Ville Kantee (new second coach for Finnish A-team), that they managed to get Gerhard 'Gatsch' Hofer to our team. Finnish news: http://www.hiihtoliitto.fi/makihyppy-yhdistetty/?x3930=12997969
Ofcourse no one can understund finnish but basically he's supposed to develope better skies, bindings and suits for us. Like he did in team Austria and team Swiss.
So everything looks good on paper,
and it 'unfortunately' looks like I'm still gonna hang 'round and tease younger jumpers and spectators atleast 'one more time'...
Olympic training camp & Olympic Games -Park City & Vancouver/Whistler4.2. - 26.2.
So, what can I say? ...Maybe now it's been enough time so that I can write something without getting pissed when I think about the Games...
First something about our training camp in Park City. There everything went great: the sun was shining & jumping was good/great ...and then we started our journey to the olympics...
And this I must mention: Our (jumpers & nordic combiners) trip to Vancouver/Whistler was something totally unbelieveble, and I only mean that because it was planned totally like the F-word...
Other teams who were also training there, flew straight to Vancouver but not us, no way: We first flew to Phoenix (1000km wrong way..) and there we flew to Seattle (I guess there's no airport in Vancouver..) and there we took a bus to Whistler.. And all that took only 16 hours... Just when we all were recovered our 24 h trip to US, we took another one just before the games... I have to say if it's the little things which are crucial when the medals are given, our Finnish team went straight to bottom of ditch right from the start!... Well, enough of this whining but you can imagine how pissed we all were when we realized the situation and how things could've been done...
So, then it was time for trainings at K90 and the weather was fantastic (and that was sarcasm). It was raining snow and water all the time. And my jumping was ..well, not good and I didn't even made it to team!.. It was a little shock, all what I was thinking about was: all year training and crying and bleeding and now I'm watching the Games in some pub's screen at Whistler?!...
I'm not gonna repeat the whole results from the small hill but only saying that Amman won and he did it superiorly (is that a word?). And I just have to say this: Ahonen was once again fourth! He's been fourth like five times at invidual races both olympic and world championships, well... it has to be some kind of record... And Harri was disqualified (big jumping suit..) Well, lesson learned I guess...
Well, anyway, we had a good spirit nevertheless. Game's still on! Now it was K120 and the sun started shining for the first time. And I did pretty well all the time, over 130 constantly... And in qualification I was third, oh my... Ofcourse I have the mention that top10 didn't take part naturally...
Then it was D-day so to speak and we all were anxious to race. And then crashed a small bomb: Ahonen injured himself during trial round and couldn't continue after first round..! And then, Happonen was disqualified because of too big jumping suit! (I still don't get it how that is possible, look at his suits!)
For me everything worked liked I was 20 again: I was third (134m) after first round and jumping was easy & relaxed... Who could've believe that few weeks ago? Well.. then crashed my world, 104 meters and final position 26th!?.. After that everywhere (media actually) people were saying (shouting) that old guy couldn't handle the pressure and I just failed miserabely. Pressure my a**, I hate telling excuses but I tell anyway: after my jump many of my colleagues and some coaches came and said to me that there was no chance to jump anywhere because of totally f***d up wind and that just how it went... Well, now when it's been a while I can think things and say: well two out of three I've had good luck (2002 & 2006) and this time I just had to pay my debt to mother fortune...
I have to say that just after the jump I've never had so bad place, I mean my feelings & thoughts, in my career. I felt like traitor of my country for the first 24 hours.
Oh, yes: Simon won his fourth gold an was superior once again, now he is even with the legend-Nykänen with personal gold medals!...
Nevertheless, we had to pull our selfs together: next was team competition. And the great news of Finnish team continued: Ahonen could'nt take part at team competition and Kalle replaced him because he was our reserve dude. Has ever before even happened that reserve guy has to jump because of injured jumper?
But I have to say that even we were 'just' 4th, we did farely good jumps everyone of us. Germany & Norway were just so damn good this time but places 2. - 4. were still open before last group of jumpers. Austria were just us superior like everyone thought before, second gold in a row (2006-2010).
So, my dreams of fifth (or sixth) olympic medal faded away to Canadian mountains... Little bitter start and end for my & our Games here Whistler, but you know, like some wise man has said: sometimes things just happen to go like s**t.
But life goes on, and I think, in the middle of this sport circus, we all should realize that this all is pretty tiny thing compared to real life problems and fortunes... Don't you?
right now we (Finnish olympic team) are at Park City training for the olympics but first I'll go back when we were in four hills tour & skiflying in Kulm. There's not much to say about 4 hills, it was pretty f-d up all the way from start to finish. Didn't made to final round even once! I have never had tour like that in my life. My positions were around 30. to 45. in all four races, but fortunately there was a some other reason also than just me being so bad. I did make some pretty bed judgements considering my equipments when the season started and not until in Bischofshofen I tried some new/old stuff. But it wasn't just me who realized that I should try something different equipments, Ahonen gave me some good advise and also helped me a lot with my jumping suits. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't just that. The guy in a mirror was also jumping like some bag of wet concrete!..
But after I took completely new stuff, things got easier and it started to remind skijumping again. Like in Kulm, where I was 17th & 19th. Okay, it wasn't superfantastic or anything but atleast it wasn't embarrasing anymore..!
And, oh yeah, let's congratulate Adreas Kofler for his win in four hills tour and ofcourse Janne Ahonen, who was second. He really can't do bad on that tour I guess.
After that very stressful tour, we skipped the races in Japan (I mean the normal team) and I stayed home practising like animal. The big hill in Kuopio was finally open (13.1.) and I just jumped and jumped the whole week. That also opened (a lot) somelocks in my head and spine.
Then it was time to go to Zakopane, where I was last time in 2007. I've always liked that hill for some reason, I don't quit remember how many times I've been there, maybe 7-8 times. And I've been 5 times on a podium there, actually my last win was there in 2006 (those were the days..). And it started well (maybe too well) again there: at practise rounds all jumps top3 and I won the qualification! ...But ofcourse, competition(s) put me down from clouds: 18th & 11th ...Yeah, it's possible to be too nervous even if you are old and seen it all..! But anyways, it was better finally and it reminded me how this is supposed to do.
After Zakopane we went to skiflying hill in Oberstdorf, in my opinion that is the second best flying hill (guess which is the best). Also there jumping was right from the start pretty good and most important it felt easy and relaxed. Many jumps over 200 meters, and there was also team competition in which we were third. Not super but it felt good to be on podium after all troubles we all have had during this season... And oh yes: Austria won, can u believe it? & second was Norway. Next day it was invidual competition and I did two good jumps out of three, trial round and final round. I kinda thumbled (is that even a word?) the first jump but still pretty nice if you remember my pathetic jumping few weeks back...
Ahonen was again the best Finn by being 11. and I was 15th.
And that was the last race for me & Ahonen before the olympics. Harri and Kalle continued the team tour and headed to Klingenthal. ...You know how things went there so I don't blabber about that.
So, like I wrote at start, now we are at Park City on a training camp doing final practises and tests before the big games. We'll see how it's gonna go there for us, we might have a chance to suprise people. But like you all know, there's only two gold favourites: you guessed right, Simon & Gregor. And only one favourite on team competition, we all others are challengers.
'Rebooting' was success and new thoughts about past competitions and upcoming Olympics coming soon... ...If there is internet access in Park City (2002 olympics) where we're going tomorrow for training camp before the olympics in Vancouver...
So I'll be back writing some dumb thoughts then...
So Christmas went by and so did a few world cup competitions. Three weekends to be accurate but I was taking part only two of them. The reason for I wasn't in on that third weekend was more or less because we only had four places and both Jannes (Ahonen & Happonen) needed to collect points so we could have two more places for 4 hills tour, and Hapa (Olli) was (is) jumping little to good so he would drop out...
So what's left? Me, Kalle and Larinto. We did take turns so we all could have some competitions before next period. And I did Ruka & Lillehammer (Trondheim was moved because lack of snow).
But let's cut the chase and go in Ruka, there were invidual and team competition, and I was in both (which was pretty suprise for all who saw my jumping during summer and fall..!)
First was team competiton and it went actually well for us finns, we were third behind Germany and Austrians (they won, can you believe it?!). And it wouldn't be Ruka if the wind wouldn't bother at all, so it did quit a bit but the race was decent for all. Expect for team Norway, they didn't qualify for second round..!
Invidual competition was pretty, uhm, windy too (whou!..) and some jumpers, or quit many actually did suffer some pretty bad conditions what comes on weather and wind. For example, Amman & Schlieri were position twenty something after first round. Same group where I was! And Ahonen & Olli didn't even made it to final round!.. But enough of that, here's some results from Ruka: 1) Romören 2) Bodmer 3) Loitzl ...12) Amman ...14) Keituri ...16) Me ...19) Schlieri ...21) Happonen ...34) Ahonen ...50) Olli.
And then we (Ahonen, Happonen, Olli and I) headed towards Lillehammer. I wasn't happy when I heard that the race was moved to Lillehammer from Trondheim, I actually like that Trondheim hill almost more than Ruka. Just saying... But at Lillehammer competition(s) all was like before: Amman & Schlieri did won (I don't remeber which won which race...) and rest of us were behind. Oh, and Hapa did good there also, he was 4th and 2nd! But for Ahonen it didn't go so well there: He had a fever (pretty bad one) and only took part at one competition landing 9th position.
And for me the first race was disastor: 45th or something like that, I don't know even today what was that about... Second went better: 19th but far from good.
So that was it for me for a while, Kalle (and Larinto) went to next world cup weekend which was supposed to held in Harrachov but because lack of snow it was cancelled and Engelberg had three world cup competitions. I watched that race on tv and you all know how that went. Amman, Schieri, Amman... And for team Finland that weekend was quit humiliating... Only Ahonen did some 'almost' ok results but the most important thing did happen: Ahonen & Happonen did get enough points so Finnish team can have 6 jumpers again on 4 hills tournament.
So I stayed home and practised. Or I tried atleast: It was damn cold in Kuopio for two weeks (-15 to -20'c) but ofcourse the weather was bad enough (wind and blizzards) so I couldn't jump almost at all. Only couple practise on smaller K90 hill (which I hate, just saying).
And tomorrow I heading to 4 hills tour (for 12th time, whou, time goes fast..) and during my 3 week training break, I pretty much only did gym trainings. So I have no idea what to expect from this upcoming tour, but who knows, maybe this break and lack of jumping did good for me..?
Greetings for the first time this season (09-10). We've allready been our first training camp at Rovaniemi/Ruka and we also had national competition at Rovaniemi's K90. First of all, I have to say that I'm allways amazed how my jumping is every year so different at winter time that what it is at summer. And this year wasn't an exception, the whole summer was like I were some dusch bag who have never seen skijumping skies..! And first jump of the winter was once again like old times... Well, I'm not saying that I'm jumping like greatest guy ever but atleast it looked like skijumping sport again...
So the dates when we were at Rovaniemi/Ruka were 9. - 18.11. and between that was traditional competition called Ensilumenkisat (first snow comp.) at Rovaniemi. Results: 1)Larinto (he won second time in a row here) 2)Ahonen (I don't remember when was the last time he's not the first here) 3) Me (two weeks ago this couldn't never happen) 4) Kai Kovaljeff (maybe hard training finally pays off to him) 5) Happonen (he's better than this) ...9) Olli (too small hill for him). If you want, you can check complete results here: http://www.oh.fi/index.php?name=Content&nodeIDX=3636 and click -Erikoismäki, lopputulokset.
And at Ruka jumping was pretty good but the more important, now it was fun (again). And the weather was great also, lots of snow and nice wind the whole time. Now I'm doing this (writing thing) at Kuopio and I'm looking out: +7'c and raining... And what I've heard, it's gonna be difficult weather at Ruka also (warm and rain/snow/wind??) hopefully that forecast is false...!
And what really is interesting is that we (Finland) only have 4 places to world cup. And that's simply because Ahonen's and Happonen's ranking points were cleared after last winter and 2 places were taken away and no new guy or junior were able to take enough points. So this is pretty shitty situation, we have 6-7 jumpers (in good shape) and only 4 are allowed to continue after Ruka. I'm guessing that the team is gonna be Ahonen, Olli, Happonen and ? . So it's going to be tough (but fair fight) between rest of us. And the reason why I'm putting Ahonen & Happonen straight here is because they don't have ranking points and if/when they get them, Finnish team will have 2 extra seats to the 4 hills tournament. Then we'll have that normal 6 places... And come on, does anyone really believe that Harri Olli ain't the best or one of the best what we got right now?... But enough of this speculation, I'm believing (or I have to believe) that I'm one of the four after Ruka, even though I was demotied to national group, (where are B-list jumpers..). But if I'm not, hopefully it's not the end of the world and things go normal when it's time to go to 4 hills tour.
Oh yes, almost forgot that apparently those FIS guys them selfs didn't believe that new wind/gate rule or whatever... They only use it in a few competitions later this season. And I remind you who are wondering why I'm more against it than defend this rule, is simply that I just don't and can't believe that computer can calculate with one simple formula how good I am or anyone else is. And also because I've seen those summer races and that system ain't even 50% reliable. Some jumper can get the best wind there is and computer says the wind was bad and +20 points, or some can get the worst wind ever and the all mighty computer says: good weather, -15 points... You get the point. I think I'm cried enough of all wrong things in the world, for now anyways...
So see ya, I'm heading towards Ruka (and hopefully after that to Trondheim!..)
Hello for the last time of this summer. Now summer is officially over (for us anyway) and we're just waiting when it's gonna start snowing...
But before that here's some stuff about our national championships (19.9.) and our last training camps and bla bla...
So, first (friday) we had team competitons at K90 and there was no surprises, Lahtis team won and Janne Ahonen was the best jumper on that competition. Which is not any surprise for anyone, that hill (K90) is hill where nobody, I mean bobody ever beats Janne Ahonen. Ounasvaaras team (Harri Olli as one of them) was second, and Puijos team (where I am) was third, and I jumped like piece of crap. Which was no surprise for anyone... (smiley face!)
And Saturday we had the main event at K116. Like I mentioned previously Harri Olli was the biggest favourite and Ahonen was ?... But Ahonen did pretty big surprise and was superior. And I must say that Harri's pretty weak performance was equally big surprise. Happonen also jumped weaker than anyone expected. And if you are wondering why it was such a bomb that Ahonen won like that, it was more or less because he jumped very badly just day before championships and almost everyone at A-team where jumping way better (expect me naturally ...smiley face!). My competition was, once again, a big joke but who cares, I don't!.. I always jump like blind grandma at summertime so no big deal, ofcourse it doesn't do good for self esteem to humiliate yourself in public like that... So here's some results:
1) Ahonen 2) Olli 3) Happonen 4) Ossi-Pekka Valta (talented junior) 5) Keituri 6) Niemi 7) J.Hautamäki ...9) Me...
Ok, enough of that, after that Olli, Happonen, Niemi and Keituri went to Klingenthal for summer GP finals. There Harri and Happonen jumped like they usually do (Harri was third and Happonen 8.) and I must say that, the new wind/gate rule is not working! But try to tell that to those sixty-seventy year old FIS dudes... Ofcourse they mean good and the idea is nice but when do people learn that if it's good on paper, it doesn't necessarily work on real life... But that's just me and my opinion...
After that myself, Ahonen and Larinto joined them for training camp there. There things went better for me but my so called ski jumping was still embarrassingly weak if you compare it to anyone who does this sport seriously... (smiley face!)
Week after we had our last training camp at Lahti and things went pretty much same, I'm doing pretty bad results but I (try) believe that summer is summer and winter will be different like every year it has been like that. Now everything has been done (physical trainings and equipment tests) and there's only my favourite thing to left: the diet to lose weight from seventy to sixty...
And after two weeks we're going to Rovaniemi/Ruka, and start winter trainings and tests. And eventhough jumping was pretty (come on, it was goddamn awful!) bad the whole summer, everything else went like I planned and I actually can't wait that I can jump on snow again!..
So, hey for now and let's write again when it's snowing!
Not much have happened during these couple of weeks, just awesome 'turist'trip to Japan and one-week training camp at Lahti with national team...
I just have to say that my trip at Japan GP was totally something what I can't describe. Before I went there, I'd been doing pretty good jumps and trainings at home but there I was totally lost the whole time. I jumped positions 35 - 45 every 'jump', so not what I would expect... But otherwise it was a good trip, it was nice to see some old friends for a while and I've always liked Japan anyway. And I must say that could it be that circle is now complete? Because: my first summer GP at Hakuba was 1998 and I didn't make it to final round in both competitions then. And now, (I think this was my last trip to summer GP at Hakuba) same story: didn't make it to final round.. And between those 1998-2009 I have had great competitions always at Hakuba. But let's not make any promises...
And whatabout that training camp then? I think I can say that Harri (Olli) is in very good shape right now and Janne (Happonen) is also jumping better week after week. But for me it's like always at summer time: not total s***t, but not great either. But definetely way better than in Hakuba!
I'm also trying to do something new and different at trainings so I'm now trying to jump with cross country skisuit, and ...well, I don't know is it gonna help me about my problems at jumping, but atleast it's fun to do!
...And ofcourse, there is gonna be national championships at Lahti next weekend, and as you can think yourselfs, Harri Olli is ofcourse the favourite number 1. Janne Ahonen is pretty much question mark how he's gonna do. For me I'm not gonna think goals and numbers, I'm just trying to have some fun at the hill. Maybe that works this time better...
That's it for now, and remember: even if I fail miserably, I don't jump in to the nearest lake with concreteboots on my legs!
Like I said previous in blog, it's 30/70 chance that I'll take part either Hakuba/Klingenthal. Well that 30 % is happening, I'm going to Hakuba GP with Janne Happonen. We'll see how's it gonna go for me. If all goes well, who knows I even could be seen at Klingenthal... And sorry, I know, these blogs are getting boring. No funny stuff anywhere, maybe next time (<--story of my life!).
Now we’re about middle of summer and pretty much almost everything is going like I (or me and coaches) planned. Trainings are going well (both jumping and physical trainings). Feels good to be able to do hard real trainings once again, last time when it was possible for me was fall 2006…
As someone may know, I’m not gonna take part at summer GP. I decided that early spring and coaches agreed with me. Now I’m just trying to train hard and just aiming to winter… Well, to be completely honest with you, I’m not sure that would’ve they chosen me there even if I would’ve been wanted to jump there. That’s because only 4 jumpers were allowed to take part at Hinterzarten for Finnish team… And I wasn’t in top4 at Finnish national GP tour… Few words about that:
First competition was in Ruka K64 (!) but none of A (or B) team guys were there, so:
Second competition was in Lahti at K90 (I’m not using those HS –hillsize- marks, I don’t get them…) trial round went surprisingly good: I did the longest jump, but naturally competition rounds weren’t that good ;) …Results of Lahti:
Third competition was in Kuopio K120. Weather was quite windy and race was delayed about two hours but finally we jumped, and I sucked as usual:
1. Olli 2. Niemi 3. Happonen 4. Ruuskanen 5.Me6. Kovaljeff.
And final competition was held in Vuokatti K90, not much to say about that either, Harri is jumping pretty good and Happonen is recovering his bad injury very well:
1. Olli 2. Lindström 3. Happonen 4. Niemi 5. Me 6. Kovaljeff.
…So I was fifth in every competition, better than last two years though… And my brother Jussi was also jumping in Kuopio and Vuokatti but that was just for fun for him. He won’t do this seriously anymore, they were his first (and last) jumps for summer. But who knows, maybe he jumps again at winter somewere… And also Tami Kiuru has retired from jumping (www.tamikiuru.com). …Who’s next? Bets anyone?
…Have to take my promise a little back, that summer GP I mean, because it might be possible that I take part Hakuba/Klingenthal competition(s). But that’s just like 30/70 chance or something…
And now a little lighter subject: I went to Sonisphere festival at Pori (south-west coach of Finland). There were bands like Machine Head, LinkinPark and some never heard new beginners called Metallica. It was pretty cool show, 60 000 people and half of them drunk as h*ll…
That’s it for now, if something what is worth writing, not sure this was, I might put it here…
Actually I don't have anything new or whatsoever to tell, but I'm just promoting The Kroisos new (and only) CD: Panda Eyes here!... It's on sale now ...atleast on Finnish webpages: http://www.levykauppax.fi/artist/kroisos/panda_eyes/ ...Buy it, you never know: you could even like it. ...And I don't think it's gonna be enough if only the band members friends & relatives buy it!.. (hymiö)
So... Where should I start writing about? Or better yet, what… It’s been a while since I put anything out here.
But anyway, after the (looong) season I did a pretty nice road trip in good old USA. I saw some pretty cool places: LA, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, stuff like that. And our rental car kilometer counter showed that we drove more or less 5000 km on that trip… So quite much driving on that trip. And have to mention one pretty funny thing, when I was in San Francisco during my trip, I saw Martin Schmitt there. He was on vacation at USA also. It was kinda weird to bump into fellow colleague other side of the world like that but it showed how small the world can be!.. I also must say that after being in LA and driving there in the middle of rush our, I’m not gonna complain about traffic jams ever again..!
Well enough of that journey, but I may even put some photos of that (trip) here. Or not.
But I also wanna mention that before my vacation trip we had an every year thing called minarikuppi ( http://minarikuppi.blogspot.com/ ), It’s a lot of fun. We get together, present- and ex-jumpers and -nordic combiners. You can check it out on that webpage, ain’t sure if there’s English section or not but anyways…
But as always the fun must stop sometimes, and immediately after the USA trip, training started. Physical trainings I mean, jumping hills are not open yet… And ofcourse, the every summer diet!..
It’s amazing how you can get yourself such a bad shape in just over couple of weeks!.. I think it’s that fast food what they have in US.
Well, that’s pretty much it what I’ve done after Planica.
I’m not gonna start writing so often now when it’s summer time, it would be pretty boring blog then. But if/when there’s something I’ll put some stupid thoughts here,
Now it’s been a few days ..or was it two weeks? And maybe it is time to do small sum up about my season 2008-2009. But first few words about our final competition (Sunday in Planica).
The weather was finally like it should be in Planica: sunny and warm. And on trial round it looked that it’s gonna be a great race, many did over 200 meters, including me. (I remember that the gate was 8 or 10 at trail round or something..) But during the first round problems started: After 20 jumpers, the wind, which was almost calm started to blow like 3-4 meters/second head wind. So the gate dropped from 10 to 8, and almost immediately 8 to 6. And finally to gate 4! And believe me boys and girls when I say that it’s pretty g**damn low! My first jump was 196 and from gate 10, so you can imagine my confidence when I restarted at gate 4… And I did 181 and that felt just great!… And at final round gate was still 4 and I ended my season with 180 meters with my famous ‘candle’ landing… That was the worst feeling ever! My favourite hill and not even close to 200! …Well, I have to admit that gate 4 was way too low for me, top jumpers did easily over 200 meters…Here’s some results: 1st Harri Olli (210m & 219m), 2nd Malysz, (211 & 209) 3rd Amman and (Planica-specialist) Kranjec …27thme… hurayy..! I was so f-up after my (great) last jump that I said at Finnish TV interview when they asked about my plans and feelings that it’s fifty-fifty if I’m gonna quit or not. Well, what can I say? When you are too dumb to realize that you’re done, you’ll keep going on… like me.
Well enough of that, now some words about my whole season: It wasn’t all bad, actually before Liberecs world champs my jumping was actually pretty ok. I did positions around top10 pretty constantly and few times even top5 (two podium places, can you believe it?). But in Liberec and after that it was failure after failure. Don’t know why, usually I’ve done better at spring season, now it was opposite… But if you take a look my positions in overall and 4 hills etc. You’ll see that it’s been pretty constantly around 10th:
Overall 12th, world champs K120 11th, 4 hills tour 9th, Nordic tour 10th and ski flying cup 9th. So, not so bad but not good or great either, but way better than last year anyway. What about other guys then, Harri Olli had a great season, breakthrough you could say, he was 4th at overall with 3 wins and Ville Larinto was 14th with 3 podium places, Kalle Keituri also did his best season ever. And we, as a team, were 2nd behind Austrians. Before season started everybody told us that we don’t have a chance without Ahonen and Happonen (as a team). We had 2 wins, 2 times 2nd and 3rd once,
Pretty well I must say. Of course there were huge disappointments also, Liberecs team 6th and Planicas 8th but I believe and know that they were only accidents… And what could I say about Schlierenzauer? Pretty amazing season for him, 13 wins (new record, Ahonen had 12). Maybe the most talented guy since Nykänen, 3 seasons and 24 wins (is that correct?). That is just unbelievable, but hey, some have talent and some just don’t. Which am I? Right now it feels that I belong to those who simply don’t have it, but if I use to have it, I can find it again… (all I need is Eye of the tiger -song!)
Summer trainings will start soon and I’m already anxious to start to work for next winter. Now I’m signing out but I’ll come back once in a while...!
Ok folks, the finals are getting close! We arrived to Planica at Wednesday, but not to 'good' old hotel Spik. I heard that it has been closed its doors, feels weird... About ten years I have been visiting here Planica and pretty much always we have stayed at Spik, It wasn't the greatest but it was quiet and peaceful place. Now we are staying almost centrum of Krjanska Gora, so it's gonna be loud noise every night outside. (lots of drunken people partying during the finals..!) Anyways, the weather was beautiful when we arrived, sunny and warm, like it has been almost always here... But on Thursday it was cold and cloudy, but wind was calm. So we did our usual trainings and qualifications. And it went pretty well for me: 205,5m and two times 198 meters... Simon Amman jumped the longest 218 or something and the best nordic combiner of 2008-2009 Anssi Koivuranta also taked part to our trainings and jumped 214,5 meters. Longest ever by nordic combiner...! Nice..! Should I be worried..? At evening we had volleyball match against the japan team, and naturally we didn't win... last game of this season!
On Friday, the weather was still cold and cloudy. And now the wind was also pretty hard. The trial round was cancelled because of that and the first round was very difficult: back wind, front wind, side wind, all kind of wind..! I was pretty disappointed of my effort: 180 meters and 17th. I really expected more especially here at Planica. And ofcourse the final round was cancelled because of the wind... damned! And guess who won? Here's a hint: it was his 13th win this season... Harri Olli was again best of us Finns (8th). So not so great for us, but hey, if you can't say anything else, blame the wind conditions! And that's sarcasm! At evening I got invited to some kind of hall of fame -thing at sport center here Planica. All world record jumpers were invited but ofcourse not everyone couldn't be there but many were: Espen Bredesen, Goldi, some record jumpers from 60's and 70's also... and ofcourse Schmitt, me, Romören etc... It was nice to meet some old(er) jumpers. We signed some wall and get a dvd of Planica jumps and history. It felt nice to be remembered by somehow... And now it's time to brag a littlebit again! I was told there that I'm currently holding the most jumps over 200 meters. (Before Saturday it's 73 times, Adam Malysz is second on that list by 70 jumps or something...) But how long?..
And now Saturday, still cold and cloudy. And the wind was even harder than yesterday. But the team competition did start, and the trial round didn't promise much for me (183 meters) luckily it was just trial... Because at first round I did a good jump (It's been a long, long time since I have done that good at skiflying hill...) 220,5 meters! Damn that felt good!! But during the 3rd group, wind started to make problems again, and Ville (Ok, he admitted that he tried way too much and failed at take off) came down very short, only 111 meters... So we were 8th after first round, almost didn't make it to final round! But, dispite that we weren't fighting for the victory anymore, we wanted to show our best... (yeah, yeah and long live the samurai spirit! ...sarcasm) Seriously, important was that we didn't blame the teams junior about his failure, (sh)it happens, even to best ones... And finally, the sun started to shine through clouds and it felt like Planica! So maybe because of that, at second round we really started to climb up: I did 205,5 meters, Kalle 199,5 and Ville pulled nicely himself together and did 195,5 meters so we were only 12 points behind Russian team which was 3rd before final group... And we all have seen Harris jumps at skiflying team competitions, two times last man and both times new hill record. So we were pretty confident that Harri will jump us to podium... But, yeps, the jury desided to cancel the whole second round... So hooray, first round jumps did count only. Well, to be honest, it was a pretty hard wind at that moment. But hey, the Austrians didn't win (is that even possible), 1st Norway, 2nd Poland (!) and 3rd Russia. Well, even though our teams effort was what it was, I'm pretty happy that I jumped well (about time) and like it should here at Planica. So, I'm exited about Sundays finale and long jumps!
...I'm writing this on Saturday evening in my room and because it might be possible that I ain't gonna have time to write anything after tomorrows (Sundays) competition, I'll put this blog out now before Great Finale. It's gonna be a big party immediately after last jump and it hopefully lasts to whole night so I'll get back after few days to sum up my season or something...
Hopefully everything goes well and we all end our season living and kicking!
Ok, Nordic Tournament continues and we went from Lahti to Kuopio and they (jury of competition) didn't move the trainings/qualification to K90 or K64..! Well, the weather was pretty ok. Little back wind time to time but best ones still went far (enough). But I didn't. I think we all jumpers agree that Puijos hill is maybe one of the most difficult what there is nowadays... I can't tell why but it just is. And I have been struggling with that hill three years now, and the struggle continues. My training jumps: 107m, 92m and 101 meters! Yeah... I'm so tired...
But on competition day you'll do your 100%, especially front of your home crowd. I have to say that even though our suits get smaller (tighter) year by year, we still have less speed in competitions than year before that etc... for example Puijos world cup: few years ago we jumped at gate 6-7, and last two races gates 4-5. And now it was gates 2-3. (Actually I'm not 100% sure those gate numbers but you get the idea...) I have never ever jumped that low gate at that hill in my life!.. And there were slight back wind time to time during the competition, so pretty challenging conditions again at Puijos world cup... Many top jumpers didn't make it to final round. I did amazingly well at first round: 119,5 and 15. place (for me at Puijo WC it is ok result),
but second was (again) pretty bad (106,5m) and I was 22nd. I felt really bad, even worse than Liberecs failure. At front of home crowd and all...
Anyway, I did say few blogs back that I'm pretty amazed by jumpers like Kasai and Okabe. They are pretty old you know.. (hymiö). And now mr. Okabe won, and is now the oldest (38) winner of world cup competition!.. I really have to ask autograph from him... Harri Olli was again the best of us Finns (4th).
So, Wednesday, and after beeing pretty upset 12 hours I joined rest of our team and we headed to Lillehammer. The coaches did some small chances on team after Puijo, now Sami Niemi and my brother Jussi joined us (me, Harri, Ville and Kalle). Nothing to tell about that day (just sitting on a plane and in a bus whole day) so I'm skipping to Thursday and qualification day. The hill felt better immediately compared to my old familiar home hill and I had no problems to make it to final competition (oh yes, I did drop to 11th at overall so I'm taking part of qualification again). Well, not that easily (28th) but no problems anyways.. And even though it was a pretty windy but we didn't have any problems to jump. Some locals told us that if there is windy at Vikersund they will move the competition to that K90 or K100 or whatever that small hill is... That would really be something!..
Ok, Friday is always a better day. And so it was, no snow and wind was almost still. For me it was pretty good competition, especially after Puijo, I did pretty good jumps (ok, I admit that I had good conditions also) 126,5 and 135 meters. And I managed to jump in top10 (10th). Last time was Oberstdorf I think... But, Harri Olli ruled today by winning outstandingly (136 and 142 meters)! And he did take the lead in Nordic Tournament, so bravo for Harri!.. After that we packed our stuff and headed to Vikersund, by bus. And they were pretty full: 2 busses for a whole world cup circuit, jumpers, coaches, judges etc... So it was pretty loaded...
After 3,5 hour ride on overloaded busses we arrived to Vikersund. And what a pleasent surprise it was at the hotel. I don't know how but it was a mess. Maybe because nordic combiners were at same hotel or something, but there were not enough rooms for all. For example, French team coaches went to their rooms and there were some Austrian nordic combined guys sleeping!.. And our coach and Japan coach didn't have room at all.
I was roommate with Kalle, and when I went to our room, I went straight back to reception: It was a single room with one small bed for two guys! Well, I started whining (first time ever by the way!) that we need extra bed or new room or something. So, I don't know where they pulled it but I did get a new room. And some team members had to go other hotel and some FIS officials gave up their rooms so that some jumpers/coaches could go somewhere to sleep..! Nice...
Well, at Saturday morning everything seemed better naturally. All did get some place/bed to sleep...
And for us jumpers, knowing that we are gonna go skiflying, nothing else mattered. And the weather was good so there were no need to even think about moving the competition to that smaller hill...
So, it was team competition (again) and in our team consist me, Kalle, Ville and Harri. And there were only one training round before actual competition. I did farely good, I even managed to jump over 200 meters. 202,5 meters to be accurately, and my second one was 189,5 meters and it already seemed that we are gonna take 3rd place before Harris jump. But Harri jumped amazingly 219 meters (new hill record by the way) and we went pass Norway. So on thank you Harri! After Harris record jump Gregor jumped even longer (224) but he fell, but that didn't bother the Austrian team. They won (oh my, what a huge surprise) even so that Gregor fell his both jumps. But the second place tasted pretty good, I have to say.
On Sunday weather seemed to be very good, the sun was shining and wind was almost calm, some slight back wind only. It actually started to feel that season is almost over and spring is coming!.. But not yet...
Well, it was a beautiful weather to jump on skiflying hill but after yesterdays long jumps and Gregors fallen jumps, the jury (was that really anykind of surprise to anyone?) decided to put the starting gate so low that pretty much nobody couldn't jump close to 200 meters without help of wind. I'm not sure but I think that there were only 3-4 guys who jumped over 200... I did 183 and 186 meters and I was 11th. Actually that isn't such a bad result but I really expected better. Maybe positions between 4. - 8. but not this time... Harri Olli was 7th by jumping 182,5 and 196,5 meters and I stayed down with Harri and we waited Gregors jump. If Gregor jumps less than 191 meters Harri will win Nordic tour... And, yes, how else? Gregor jumped 192 meters and won Nordic tournament 0,6 points ahead Harri... And at same time he made sure that he'll win the overall as well. Now Gregor has 12 wins but is it gonna be 13 or 14 after Planica? Well, we do our best that he won't get more wins that Ahonen (also 12) in one season. Oh, and if anyone cares, I was 10th in Nordic tournament. I'll put some results here: 1st Gregor S. 2nd Harri O. 3rd Simon A. 4th Dimitri V. 5th Adam M. ...10th me... So not quite what I hoped for but better than last year anyways...
And last some Finnish sport news: Tanja Poutiainen won alpine skiing super-slalom world cup overall, Sami Jauhojärvi won mens 50km competition at Trondheim (first mens victory since 2000 at world cup) and Anssi Koivuranta won nordic combined world cup overall! And like there is written up, Harri was second at Nordic tour. So not bad for a Finnish winter sport this weekend....
So, only one weekend to go and world cup ends familiarly at Planica. I heard that they have made some changes for the hill, they have digged the landing area so maybe longer jumps this year? Maybe just rumors but it's still the king of the hills and can't wait to jump there!.. Hopefully I can jump over 200 meters..!
I'll get back here after Planica... Maybe there will be few days delay...
Back to vorld cup circus and Liberec is long gone and hopefully forgotten. Now it's Nordic tournament at Lahti. I'm feeling carefully confident (again) because I did a pretty good basic training at Puijos k64 after Liberecs ultimate catastrof (yes, back to basics with Puijos jumpers under 14 year, guess how old did I feel myself). But back to Lahti, I've heard that there has been a great winter conditions through whole season here. Some -5'c to -10'c and just a little wind now and then. But ofcourse this weekend the temperature rised to 0'c and wind started to blow everywhere...
So we only had one training round in pretty windy weather... Some never heard guy Gregor something jumped 106,5 meters for example...
Saturday and I immediately did check the weather (wind) and still windy. But nordic combiners did manage to jump so I'm confident...
And the race is on! Pretty windy but still ok: 3-4 meters/second and I have to tell you that there were some excitement after Liberecs disastor. We all wanted to show that we really don't belong to place 6! And we almost did it, we were 2nd (you never couldn't expect the surprise winner: Austria!..) but this time it really was thight. Just a few points ahead... And I jumped in the last group with Gregor and Schmitt and Jacobsen, so beforehand I though that I don't have a chance against these dudes but guess what: Now I have to brag a little bit, I was the best on my group! ...Well naturally it was a little bit windy weather so point taken by there... But still I felt pretty godd**mn good... We all did actually...
So, Sunday and the sun is shining and the birds are singing! And everything is well at the kingdom of Lahti and Salpausselkä, right? We all though that, but then, when we were prepairing for the competition, the race directors had some bright idea. We are gonna move the competition to K90 hill! We all were blown away, the weather was better that yesterday, so what the ****? I heard that there were only few jumpers who were glad at that decision but we rest... well try to guess. Most of the coaches were also amazed of that.
We all know what they say about losers: always whine about something and winners never on anything so here's some more whining about the subject: Nordic combiners jumped in the wind 4-7 m/s with no problem. And now there was 2-3 m/s... Race director told to public that there were 7-8 m/s wind but that was complete bulls**t! That was in the morning, afternoon it was a good weather. Besides, all jumpers from Lahti told that the wind effects more on K90 than K116... ..Remember those days when ski jumpers were fearless dudes who jumped anywhere and any weather? Yeah, speaking about the good old days... Taking copies in the office is more thrilling nowadays than doing this 'used to be a great' -thing... I know that it would be great to have equal conditions to everyone but still, this just ain't what it used to be, I'm absolutely out of words...
Anyway, Gregor won, Simon was 2nd and Vassiliev were 3rd. Harri was best Finn 4th and I finished 17th so good bye for Nordic tournament for me... ...again.
I'll do everything I can that they will move the Kuopios competition to K64, the wind doesn't bother on that!
And final some small news here Finland: My and our good old friend Janne Ahonen is coming back to ski jumping world next season! I honestly must say that I really didn't have a clue before he went on public about that. I have no doubts that he's gonna make it back to the top, If it would be anyone else I'd had some real doubts! ...There only one concern on my mind. Next season there is pretty strong Finn team: Ahonen, Happonen, Olli and Larinto... So guess who will drop out? (hymiö) But hey, that's just gonna give me more motivation to do everything better because now it is not obvious to me that I'll be on the team!.. Well, we'll just have to wait and see how is it going to be..!
Ok, the world championships in Liberec are now over. And from skijumpers and nordic combiners there really ain't much (or nothing) to tell. Zero medals for us, and both teams had worst place in history on team events: nordic combiners 8th and we were 6th. I didn't know that it is even possible to do such a bad results..! But fortunately cross country skiers did great job: 8 medals which 3 were gold. Both men and women, so congratulations for them and a big buu for us rest..! But hey, ofcourse I can always blame the weather, right? ...You'll be the judge of that, I ain't touching on that subject no more... Well, here's little overlook about my (and ours) last two days in Liberec...
Friday: At morning, everything seemed ok. The weather was decent and we went to gym (again).
After that, with good spirit, to the hill. Trial round went quite good, and the first round was pretty equal by wind and all. I did pretty good 127 meters and I was 11th. Kuttel was leading with 133,5. But immediately after that it started to wind and snow. And believe me when I say that it snowed pretty hard... So, surprise, the final round were forced to cancel, after couple of restarts... And: 1st Kuttel, 2nd Schmitt and 3rd was Jacobsen... And I was the best Finn (?!) 11th. Can't really be pissed off by that result if you look my jumping during world cup: overall 10th and 4 hills tour 9th, so no excuses of any kind. Just did what I could, what else..?
And Saturday, the big day. And the last day for us jumpers. We all had pretty good feeling when we arrived to the hills. Even though, we didn't reach medals at K90 or K120, we knew that now it's really chance to do good... So, during trial round weather was still good and we jumped quite good also: Austrians naturally jumped longest but we had good round with second longest jumps...
Naturally we felt confident before first round... For my jumps, I think I did what I could: 128,5 and 131,5 meters and compared to Loitzl (who was my opponent on my group): 131 and 136 or something... But something happened during first round. Ofcourse the weather chanced from good to pretty bad: rain and wind. But also something else, after 1st round we were 5th...!! And the second round was more or less tricky with conditions, and we were 6th!! It can't all be because of bad weather, can it?! ..I really can't believe it still, before Liberec we won team event and had it all..! Now, just bone in our hands, or not even that!..
And you never guess which team won the hole s***t? Yeah, the Austrians. And Norway was second. But Japan really surprised everyone by reaching bronze. And did I mention that we were 6th?
So, that's all folks from Liberec!.. I'm signing out and getting back to you after Nordic tour..
So, it's been a few days now after K90 competition. And..Well, first I want to say (or write) that everyone who can read/speak finnish must have seen all that Harri Olli -crap what have ruled the finnish sport tabloids pretty much the whole week. And all that hassle about Harri by finnish media, is getting ridiculous by now. ...Or is it just that we Finns are too much used to that no one in the media world gives a crap what we do or won't do..?
Well, now that's been said, enough of that b.s.
Ok, back to Sunday and all the anger about that unbelievable humilitation on K90 is gone, more or less.. And even though my legs hurt quite a bit after my little jogging last evening, I headed to gym to do some serious weight lifting. And it feels good!.. And I spend the whole evening and part of the night with my new jumping suit which I desperately tried to fix by sewing machine, so that it would pass FIS tests.. And at the end, some results of nordic combined: Anssi Koivuranta was the biggest favourite but he was in both competitions 4th. Those are good results no doubt but for a athlete, it's the worst, atleast in world champs... You can ask Ahonen is that true, I'm remembering that he has been 4th atleast four times at olympics/world champs... Little trivia knowledge...
What about Monday? It was supposed to be first trainings on K120, but... guess what? Too much snow and wind! So it was cancelled... Instead we (well, three of us) went to the shopping mall called 'Nisa', to spend hour or two. And even I managed to buy jeans. But because there were no one who could understund anything about style to tell how stupid I look in them, I'll probably never wear them again...
And at evening (and part of the night) I desperately tried to fix my new suit (by sewing machine) ready for the competition...
And Tuesday? Well, it was almost clear sky. So after gym (greatest volley ball game ever, by the way) we headed to the hills. And yes, it felt so nice to jump on a big hill. Actually I was quite nervous because of bad result on K90. I was littlebit worried that my skills are long gone...
But the trainings went well, I had two jumps out of three at top3-5... (by distance I mean), and Harri Olli jumped the longest (134,5).
And at evening (and part of the night) I desperately tried to fix my new suit (by sewing machine) ready for the competition...
Well, then came Wednesday. And as usual, we went to the gym first. Bad floorball. And the weather suprised us by being pretty ok (no snow and only little wind)... So official trainings number 3 was on and my first jump was still good: it was second longest.. oh my... And then I tested the suit which I had prepared three nights with bloody finger tips and tears in my eyes: complete fiasko..! Well, maybe not fiasko but pretty bad anyway. Always a pleasure to do a job with no use of anything...
But anyways, jumping feels pretty good. So that's all that matters now!.. But now what I'm supposed to do the whole evening now that I don't have a suit to be fixed? Writing this..?
So Thursday and qualification day! First, gym. Great volleyball again. Then lunch (salad) and to the hills. It was pretty ok weather at first, but about middle of training round it started to get windy and at the end, the whole qualification was forced to cancel. Because of wind and heavy snow. It really starts to get annoying, don't it?
But summa summarum, or something, It was good to see that the K90 was just a some weird stumble. Three jumps out of six at top3-5, so I'm quite confident about the big hill event. Ofourse we all know who are the real favourites but think I have a small shot to reach to the podium...
I only, and we all jumpers do, hope that the wind is not gonna mess everything.
So, I'll get back to this stuff after the big hill and/or the team event. It depends how it goes... But near future anyways....!
21.2. Liberec WChamps.K90 (or should I say HS100 like they do nowadays)
What there's to say? 91,5 meters and 36th... This hill is on my black list I tell you that!.. After my jump I was pretty messed up and pissed off, so I had a great idea to walk/run to our athletes village... By car it takes about 25-30 minutes so not a good idea... But 2 1/2 hours jogging and getting lost time to time really helps if you are pissed of! Well, bright side is that it really can't go any worse (for me I mean). Anyway, best Finn was Larinto (7th) and Olli had leading position after 1. round but came down 13th. So not a great day for us... Days like these I really feel that I'm done, but I ain't, not yet... I'm medium +.
Ok, it's Thursday morning and we arrived to Liberec. And, you guessed it, it is snowing, a lot.
The athletes village looks like I expected, 80's Czechoslovakian campus. Few old concrete buildings and cafeteria, well atleast we have private rooms here... Right after we arrived we heard that team Finlands Aino-Kaisa Saarinen won gold at womens 10km, nice!
At evening we were supposed to have official trainings right after nordic combined but, you guessed it, both were cancelled because of heavy wind and heavy snow... Oh my...
Hey, it's Friday morning and weather looks... same: heavy snow... But it is what it is and we headed to gym. After world class volleyball match between team Finlands ski jumpers vs. Nordic combined, which we jumpers won no question about that, we heard that team Finlands Matti Heikkinen won bronze at mens 15km, pretty nice! After that we went to the official trainings, and this time we managed to jump. The weather was still quite unpleasent so to speak. And the hill was something I tell you, I don't think I have ever jumped a hill like this one.. And I don't mean it in a good way! Actually whole our team was pretty messed up with this hill but I had a huge problem with this one: 1. round 83,5m (oh my...) and 2. round 59,5m!! (what the ****!) I think that I have never jumped this short or badly in any official thing in my life! I'm starting to get little worried here... And almost all the other top10-20 jumpers did farely good results: 90-100 meter jumps, so it's pretty much just on me that I jumped.. no, just went down that short!
Well, atleast I don't have to take pressure about being top favourite!...
Now I think it's been a few days so I'll get back at writing about our (my point of view tough) Team tour, which started 5.2.
So it was amazing 10 hours period at home and back to the saddle (half dead) and towards Willingen..
I have always liked Willingen hill, almost as much as Rukas, I think all jumpers like this hill.
Good old fashioned big k-130 (it used to be k-120). Fridays trainings went pretty well for me, atleast one jump was long enough to brag about, almost. And Saturday it was team competition, and weather was a littlebit of everything I guess. Wind was head and back and it was snowing and time to time it was a clear sky, so pretty hard race both for jumpers and for jury. I did my part farely well, and we landed third. At Ruka we won, but after that the Austrians have 'gone with the wind'...! And like (I think everyone) expected, they won. But Norwegians really put them against corner: they were second losing only 1,7 points. I heard that it was the most narrow win of world cup history. But that's nothing compared to team competition 2002 olympics: We lost gold 0,1 points to Germans...
But back to reality and present time. Sunday was individual competition and it was (again) littlebit windy weather... I did two 'awesome' jumps and I was the worst jumper of the final round! Oh, how I love this game..! And Gregor won (who else?) and Amman was second. But Kasai really showed that older men still got it: third, and the age of 36! ..or was it 37..? And I really have to also cry a little about jurys actions during comptition. But I think you know what I mean and if you don't, you can read it at Berkutschi or somewhere, I ain't gonna start wining about it here anymore... Bitter man's memoirs..
After that nice weekend we headed to Klingenthal (9.2.), I really never liked that hill. I can't explain it clearly even. But hill as a hill. And, guess what? Weather was awful, snowing like it would be the last day of winter ever. And littlebit windy too, heh. So we skipped (it was cancelled) the whole training session straight to competition day. And still snowing way too much. So the race was delayed by hour.. and again.. and again, until finally competition started. I jumped poorly and finished 17th. And Gregor won his sixth win in a row. Man it feels weird to think that I have done same winning straight back in the year... Don't even remember, does anyone?
Enough of that. Until now it has not been great team tour for us finns: Harri Olli has been the best of us, 8th and 7th. Rest of us not worth of mentioning...
Next stop (12.2), Oberstdorf and skiflying hill. Even though my (and our) team tour hasn't been so glorius yet, it is always great to come to do some skiflying! It's hard to explain, it just feels like you were a kid again, or something like that..
Anyway it felt great to jump over 200 meters again, and as I, our whole team improved a lot compared to those last two competitions. So Saturday was individual again, and I did farely good race, both jumps over 200 meters and 5th. Not bad for a has been jumper... But man of the day was (I don't mean that manner of the day thing..) Harri Olli, he won his first world cup competition with incredible new hill recored jump: 225,5 meters. And Kalle Keituri landed 10th. So pretty ok for Finns... And Gregor Schlierenzauers winning straight did break and he did six wins in a row. So same as Ahonen, Morgenstern and I. (It still sounds weird)
And Sunday was team event, and myself and the whole team we had self esteem boost after yesterday, and we all (quietly though) felt that we even might have a chance to win... Our team consists Keituri, myself, Harri and Juha-Matti Ruuskanen. He came to replace Larinto who went home after Klingenthal practicing for world championhips. And the Austrians were missing Morgi and Gregor, who also went home practicing. I guess after yesterdays long jumps jury didn't want to see great performances, nobody jumped over 200 in first round. (Ok, it was difficult weather also...) but to the second round, it was ok again and even I managed to go 200 meters. And Olli put end to all speculations that his win was a pure luck and jumped the longest again: 221 meters. And it really was our weekend: Yesterday we Finns had three guys at top10 and now we won team event! Godd**m it felt great to hear our national anthem on podium! And Russians were second, so if our winning was kind of a suprise, Russians second position was maybe even bigger but fairly welcomed suprise by beating favourites Austria (3.) and Norway (4.).
And Norway won the Team tour and Austrians were second, we were third kind like we little bit expected. I heard that Austrians (not jumpers but their coaches and management) were pretty pissed off about the whole weekend. I can imagine how frustrating it feels to be the best team only about 364 days / year...
Well that's it about Team tour, next morning we flew back home to do last preparations for world championships which are held in Liberec. Tuesday was completely so called day off about ski jumping (lie at home couch and watching TV, best feeling ever..!) but Wednesday back to the familiar hill of Puijo. Testing and testing and more testing...
I ain’t gonna start blabbering about the whole season because I just started writing (16.2.) but only mentioning shortly that, us you all know, the early season was Ammans show, and Loitzl won 4 hills tournament, congratulations for him, and have to mention Martin Schmitts good shape, or should I say comeback. After that it’s been pretty much Gregor Schlierenzauers show. For us Finns it’s been good season so far (Team competitions so far: 1. ; 3. and 1. and in overall standings at the moment we have 3 jumpers at top10: 6th, 9th and 10th) and for myself it’s been good so far, even though there have been a few quite bad days. I’ve had position around top10 quite often and few times even top5. Maybe not us glory like back in the days (does anyone even remember those?) but huge improvement compared to last season.
So, I’ll just skip to 22.1. and the morning when I started my trip for Vancouver-Sapporo-Team tour. First I must say that the new Olympic hills are not in Vancouver but in Whistler, and all skiers know that place. And for me, atleast HS140 felt pretty damn good. Hills profile reminded me the hills we have here in Finland, pretty old school, and I liked it! First competition went almost excellent: second podium place for me so far: third, Gregor won (ofcourse) and Loitzl was number 2. Also I have mention to all who think that ski jumping is teenagers game these days that in top10 there were only three jumpers under 27 years: Gregor, Morgi and Ville (Larinto). In top10 there were ‘grand old’ men like Kasai, Malysz and Schmitt. (yep, those guys ain’t their twentys anymore…).
Second competition was a disappointment for me, a rookie mistake: I took new equipments straight to competition without testing them and result was 23. But Ville fill up my bad jumps with monster jump 149 meters, like Gregor who won, and took third place. And guess who were 13th? Mr. Takanoku Okabe (39). If I’m feeling sometimes that I’m too old for this s**t, I only have to check birthdate of guys like Okabe and Kasai. I bow in front of dudes like them.
At morning we packed our stuff and headed to Japan. Except Ville who went home studying (can you believe it? Ski jumper who studies?). So me, Kalle (Keituri), Peksi (Ville Kantees wax-apprentice), mr. Kokkonen (assistant-coach) and mr. Väätäinen, we took flight to Tokio and Sapporo. We changed planes at Los Angeles, and I must say that we all wanted to stay there with the palm trees, but had to move on and towards Tokio. We arrived to Sapporo and everything looked great for a good ski jumping weekend. Also Veli-Matti Lindström and Kai Kovaljeff joined our stuff straight from Helsinki. Official trainings on Friday went excellent for me, longerst jump on qualification round. And even the weather and wind were decent. But on Saturday we had the traditional Sapporo condition, wind was blowing pretty much everywhere and I failed miserably (25.) but nothing couldn’t shake Schlierenzauer: he won again, behind him Morgi and Loitzl took places 2. and 3. Kalle was 4th, so he made the day atleast tolerable for us finns.
On sunday it was even better, snowing and blowing like hell and competition was cancelled. Good trip to Japan for me, was definitely worth of going..! Well atleast now I could go home for a few days to clear my mind and practise for Team tour. How little I knew…
After Sayonara parties next morning we started our trip back home. We were supposed to be back home 2.2. Our flight route was Sapporo-Tokio-London-Helsinki(-Kuopio). Veli-Matti and Kai flew straight to Helsinki (lucky son of a …). At Tokio airport I had (or should I say airport had) problems with my skies: I was told that they were too long for a planes gargo! Yeah, how on earth did I bring them to Japan you morons? (hymiö) Well, no worries, mr. Kokkonen told me that he’s staying behind and takes care my skies and will take the next flight straight to Helsinki next day. So rest of us could fly home. In the middle of flight, captain tells us that there is a blizzard at London (come on, 5cm of snow, give me a break!). So we had to fly to Glasgow (Scotland)! No problem, one day there and no idea, well, anything how or when we could continue our trip back home. Fortunately, next day we had a flight to London and believe me, it was a mess there: over 800 cancelled flights and pretty many pissed off passengers… so no hope for us to get our extra flight to Helsinki! So we spend about 9-10 hours to figure out what to do and or where and how to go anywhere (extra credits for stuff of Heathrow for their great help! ..and that was sarcasm). That time me and Kalle cave up and sat down to look after our stuff and Peksi and mr. Väätäinen went somewhere to yell people and trying to get us home. Well Peksi found a hotel for us and Väätäinen did get us a flight next morning to Helsinki. Finally some sleep… But I must give more credits to wonderful stuff of Heathrow: for some reason they didn’t book me or Peksi to Kuopios plane straight so we missed that at Helsinki and had to wait the next one fo several hours. I was pretty messed up at that time already, so breaking down was only matter of minutes… But no worries, 4.2. at 18.00 I was at home. And 5.2. next night at 4.30 wake up and straight to airport towards Helsinki and Frankfurt to Willingen.
I’ll get back at Team tour details in a few minutes.. or days…
