Athletics | A fatal blow to Topi Raitanen’s Olympic dreams – he finally told about his injury last winter

Vaasa

Raitanen’s top Olympic dreams were shattered at Kaarlenkenta on Saturday evening.

In order for a place in Paris to have opened up, a hard time, most likely from the beginning of 8.2, would have been needed for the 3,000-meter hurdles. Raitanen would have set himself a goal of under 8.30.

Now the clocks stopped at 8:46,63.

In this situation, the Finnish championship, won in a sovereign way, did not warm up much.

“Of course it’s sad,” a visibly disappointed Raitanen stated.

Raitanen competed for the last time last week at the Paavo Nurme Games in Turku. There, too, the bet was quiet 8:37,58.

If something had to be done differently in the early summer, Raitanen would have missed the Turku start.

“At that time, I would have had a longer break from the European Championships before this start, but there were such good bonuses available at Paavo Nurme’s competitions that it was worth taking the risk and running.”

Competition calendar has not been on Raitanen’s side. He stated that he is usually in the best shape only in August, but now there was no time to wait for that, as Olympic performances were badly needed after the poorly run European Championships.

Raitanen came in 15th/16th place in the EC final in Rome with a time of 8:32.37. Two years ago in Munich, in the same rough conditions, he won the EC gold with a time of 8:21.80.

“If you look at my seasons, they have gone pretty much the same way. In June I compete 2-3 times, and the last one is usually already a bit bad. Then we go to the training session, and August has always been the best. It has always worked.”

Before Saturday’s start, Raitanen believed that there would be opportunities for a result. Even during the first kilometer, however, it dawned that today was not Raitanen’s day.

Kaleva Games after the run, Raitanen finally revealed how difficult the starting point was for this season.

Even last season was relatively low-key, and in October 2023, a tear was found on the man’s second hind thigh, which was located near the buttock.

It took until February before the injury was resolved. The tear therefore consumed a large part of the training season and, according to Raitanen, affected especially the strength training.

“Unfortunately, the recovery takes a long time, since you haven’t been able to train yourself for it as well as you should have during the season.”

Adversities have also made mental endurance difficult.

“It is [henkisesti raskasta], and of course the media makes it even harder. Yes, it upsets the man without going to read the tabloids.”

“I’d rather read positive things about myself than negative ones, but that’s the life of a person in a public profession.”