Olympics | Sara Lappalainen’s sad opening in the stadium: “I’ve been fighting with my health for three years now”

Paris

Middle distances runner Sara Lappalainen had to be badly disappointed in the Olympic 1,500m preliminaries. Lappalainen fell out of the top group and finished 12th in the heat with a time of 4:08.66.

A grief-stricken runner stepped into the Stade de France interview area.

“We have been fighting with health here for three years now. You just can’t control it. Then it’s like that,” Lappalainen said.

In the midst of his disappointment, he did not elaborate on what it was all about.

Lappalainen has said that he has suffered from health problems before. For example, in the spring of 2022, the training season was ruined due to an intestinal parasite, and he has also suffered from Achilles tendon injuries.

“It just doesn’t end. It’s a lifelong illness,” Lappalainen said after the first round.

of Tokyo and between the Paris Olympics, Lappalainen had long breaks from competitions due to grief.

“I thought that everything was somehow ok, but unfortunately it dawned pretty quickly when we started running,” he said.

“At 500 meters, I realized that I wasn’t going to last.”

According to Lappalainen, the problems manifest themselves precisely as impotence and powerlessness.

Finnish the races still continue with the collection rounds. He says that he plans to participate in them, if “the feeling doesn’t go completely crazy”.

In Tokyo, Lappalainen ran no less than four Finnish records at 800 and 1,500 meters and took the semi-finals. In Paris, the international pace was faster.

“If everything was fine, I think I would have fully fought for the next places. But feeling like that, you can’t fight for anything in a race like that. It’s quite clear.”