Athletics | Joonas Rinne, who broke the Finnish record, met his common-law partner at the Turku stadium

Turku

Joonas Rinne there was one smile at Turku’s athletics evening.

Rinne was at top speed in the Paavo Nurmi Games 1,500 meter run. The 29-year-old runner’s time was 3:35.20. With that, he passed into history the SE time that was run no less than 52 years ago. Rinne’s previous record was 3:37.22.

“Could you say that now the world is open? Finland’s record has been a strong phantom limit that has been awaited and chased,” Rinne said with satisfaction.

“In a certain way, it has felt that it has to be sorted out. Then we can move towards the international top, which I want to chase. Now it has been achieved and it’s an incredibly good feeling.”

His record run after Rinne received a congratulatory kiss from his significant other in the goal area. A moment with your loved one was important to Rinte.

“It was great that Marika had also arrived here. “

“Marika has been supporting me on this journey. He is also a very important part of this whole.”

Another important woman in Rinne’s background is her mother Minna Rinne. Joonas has trained to become a record holder under his mother’s coaching. Mother was also watching the race in Turku.

“Both of us have had a clear direction to go towards this. Now I can only say that we did it.”

Saarijärvi The runner representing bulging was narrowly left out of the European Championship team in Rome. In the 1,500-meter run, the level is tough in Europe, and Rinne’s results were not enough to qualify for the competition through the EC ranking, despite a strong early season.

“Perhaps more I was left with a bit of a “victim of the system” feeling. It felt a little like that so few athletes were accepted there and maybe the result limit was set a little too low,” said Rinne.

Now his eyes are directed towards the Paris Olympics starting at the end of July. The fresh SE time was barely two seconds short of the direct Olympic limit, which is 3:33.50. In the coming weeks, Rinne will be chasing ranking points at the Midsummer Games in Kuortanene and the following weekend at the Kaleva Games in Vaasa.

“Of course, at this point we have timed the fitness for the fact that these are very important games. They must already be in top condition, because the goal would be to get to Paris.”

At the finish line of the Turku race, Rinne says that he was even more excited than his own time about whether he would reach the top eight in the race.

“Of course, the Finnish record would have warmed me up, even if I had been ninth. But in terms of the Olympics, the eighth place was very important. It would have been an empty lottery if I hadn’t finished eighth, because you get ranking points (in the ranking).”

The previous Finnish record was the Olympic champion Pekka Vasalan and Antti Loikkanen was 3.36,33 / 3.36,3 in the name. Vasala ran his time in 1972 and Loikkanen in 1980. Loikkanen’s result was hand time.