Eveliina Määttänen was the second Finnish woman to break two minutes at 800 meters.
Turku
800 meter runner Eveliina Määttänen was responsible for Paavo Nurme’s hardest Finnish performance on the opening night of the Games. Määttänen clocked a time of 1:59.96 in two laps of the track. It’s his own record, but above all, he’s under the ghost limit.
Määttäsen came Sara Lappalainen in addition, only the second Finnish woman to break under two minutes. Lappalainen’s SE is 1.59.41.
Määttänen, 27, is a sensation, because he has only been running for two seasons. His previous record was 2:01.14.
“Being under two minutes was a nice thing, a check mark. I have thought two minutes is a very short time. I made it my goal only after last summer,” Määttänen said.
“It’s actually a pretty normal feeling now. It was great to succeed in front of a big home crowd. THAT is definitely the goal, but let it come in time.”
Määttänen said that he had done imagery exercises with the help of music for less than two minutes.
“Koutsi has put it by Antonio Vivaldi Four seasons to play”, commented Määttänen.
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I put the idea in Eve’s head that you do it at the Paavo Nurme stadium. I want an understatement in Finland in front of the Finns.
There where Määttänen calmly took the ghost line underfoot, his “coach”, a Slovenian coach Jan Petrac was significantly more active behind the scenes of the stadium. Petrac, who is also Määttänen’s spouse, took pictures of his beloved and gave her fist clicks with a big smile.
“I was waiting for less than two minutes! I put the idea in Eve’s head that you do it at the Paavo Nurme stadium. I want an understatement in Finland in front of the Finns,” Petrac said.
Petrac is a former middle distance runner in his third year of coaching.
Petrac and Määttänen met each other six years ago in Italy at a training camp.
“We were first in a relationship and now in a double relationship,” Petrac said, referring to the combination of a couple and coaching relationship.
Petrac moved to Finland three years ago and took Määttänen in his coaching a couple of years ago. In addition, he coaches a few Finnish male runners.
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