Orientation | Finnish women also finished third in the World Cup relay in Kuopio – “This tastes good”

Finland the women’s relay team followed the example set by the men in the orienteering world cup and finished third at the end of the cup event. Sweden, the winner in Kuopio’s Nilsiä, and Norway, who finished second, were ahead.

Finland’s trio Marika Teini, Maija Sianoja and Venla Harju lost to Sweden by three minutes and six seconds. Norway, the runner-up in the competition, was 29 seconds ahead of Finland.

Also in the men’s relay, the top three in Kuopio were Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Swedish went straight away by Hanna Lundberg by speeding in the opening leg, and not in the following legs of the team Say Fast and the anchor Tove Alexandersson let the people behind surprise them.

By the middle of the anchor leg, Harju and Finland were locked in second place, while the overall winner of the Swiss World Cup Simona Aebersold had fallen into a big mistake. Harju led Norway, which was third Andrine Benjaminsenia by almost half a minute.

While searching for check mark 9, both Harju and Benjaminsen stayed spinning for so long that Aebersold was approaching from behind threateningly. Finally, Benjaminsen and Harju found what they wanted and shared the second and third places in the race.

Third place was good for the Finns, because when starting the anchor section, Finland, Norway and Switzerland were far behind Sweden in a bunch.

“At the beginning, Simona (Aebersold) seemed to be going really hard, but when we got to the forest side, I got to my own strength,” Harju, who finished fifth and seventh in the individual races, recalled to Yle.

Prize winners the orienteering world cup is not an everyday pleasure for Finnish teams. The third place went to Finland.

“In my section, I didn’t see Lundberg (Hanna) again after the second crossing. It was clear that Sweden was the overwhelming pre-favourite, so the two places were divided,” said Finland’s experienced starter Marika Teini.

He entered the first inning in the fifth. Sianoja put Finland in second place before Harju’s anchor leg, two seconds ahead of Switzerland and Norway.

Sianoja could appreciate the third place.

“We have had quite a lot of fourth and fifth places, so this is good,” said Sianoja.

The Finnish women’s relay was in the experienced hands of Kuopio’s Nilsiä.

“The average age of our team seems to be 35 years. Experience spoke,” Teini laughed.