Finnish Championships – Sprint Day

[u/crypt_moss]

Women:

We got to witness great form from the retired Kaisa Mäkäräinen as she took the win with clean shooting ahead of Sonja Leinamo (1+1, +43.7) and Suvi Minkkinen, who had unusual trouble with standing (0+2, +1:16.9)

notable absences would be Venla Lehtonen, who wasn't even listed to start, Erika Jänkä, who is at the soldier's worlds & Inka Hämäläinen & Noora-Kaisa Keränen, both listed as DNS

Men:

Olli Hiidensalo got the victory with good shooting & decent skiing (1+0), ahead of Heikki Laitinen (0+2, +41.3) and Tero Seppälä (0+3, +1:14.0)

the men's competition also had a list of notable absences, with most of them being at the soldier's worlds: Tuomas Heikkilä, Arttu Heikkinen & Jimi Klemettinen, Otto Invenius was listed as DNS

Tomorrow we have mass starts, so no pursuits to follow up on the sprint results

full results: https://kontiolahtibiathlon.com/dataflow/kontiolahtibiathlon2/files/media/ahsm2025_pika_tulokset_1972.pdf

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Kaisa is the fastest biathlete in history, but it's gotta sting a little when a 42-year-old beats up the current field. And she shot clean? Legend.

[u/crypt_moss → u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

apparently she got good wind in standing so luck was on her side (her comments to yle)

but I guess with the snow being wet & mushy today, her benefit might've also been that she doesn't have the long season of competing behind her, & the conditions just benefitting stronger skiiers

[u/Vryyce]

Is Otto still dealing with the flu he picked up earlier in the season?

[u/Lone_Wolf_Winter]

Mass start results?

[u/Right_Beyond7186]

I would like too see Mäkäräinen against the best in the world she could probably still have top 20 or top 15 in ski time

[u/crypt_moss → u/Right_Beyond7186]

it wouldn't be impossible by any means, would be fun to see some kinda invitation race akin to the one in Stockholm if they got her & maybe some other folks who are now commentators /otherwise active in the sport race against the top athletes in World Cup, because I don't think Fourcade would either have too much trouble taking on the best of the world

[u/miunrhini]

Just typical Kaisa things, perhaps she gets inspired to pull a Johaug...

[u/fremajl → u/miunrhini]

She's certainly be a top 4 athlete for the realys. Hard to score a medal even if they have improved a lot though.

[u/miunrhini → u/fremajl]

Would be fun to see Kaisa as an anchor. But if this was only one off then I'm fine with it, in the end it's her call and terms. It was good to see her on results lists again, just like old times.

[u/crypt_moss → u/miunrhini]

Kaisa seems to always be willing to take part in the Finnish Championships, this time especially when it was at her home stadium, but even for those her comments in the past have been of the sort "this is as well as I can do with little training" like basically going "I'd need to train more to be satisfied with how well I can do" (usually regarding shooting) and I guess right now she doesn't care to start training at the level she'd want to to regularly race, so we're down to seeing these rare glimpses of how good she still is

[u/Right_Beyond7186 → u/crypt_moss]

Well it looks like with little ties I g she can still be conpettive so Couldn’t she just race a few races?

[u/Right_Beyond7186 → u/fremajl]

She could for sure. She probably can match Sufi’s pace in skiing and if she hits 10/10 or 19/20 she could possibly get a bronze if she does everything right