Paralympics | The future worries Leo-Pekka Tähte: “It looks pretty dark”

Finland the goal of six medals set for the Paralympic team fell short in Paris, when the medal balance was finally reduced to four. Finland’s balance from Paris was four medals and six points. At least one of the medals should have been gold.

Medals came only from track winding. Leo-Pekka Tähti ended his Paralympic career with a bronze medal in the T54 class 100m breaststroke, and Amanda Kotaja received a medal of the same color in the women’s T54 class 100 meters. Having also ended his Paralympic career in Paris Toni Piispanen was responsible for two medals, when T51 class 200 meters got silver and 100 meters got bronze.

World For Kotaja, who started as the best in her own sport, the bronze is definitely a disappointment. Gold was a realistic goal, but in the final Kotaja had to bow to Belgium Lea to Bayekula and for an American To Tatyana McFadden.

Kotaja also admitted his disappointment.

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t go for the gold,” Kotaja said immediately after the final.

Also Tähti admitted that the early summer performances had the conditions for a brighter medal, but the latest results before Paris were not competitive against the top of the world.

Piispanen and Tähti have been enduring successes at the Paralympics. Piispa has medals from the Tokyo and London Games, Tähti, on the other hand, has accumulated Finland’s medal pot since Athens 2004.

Now the Paralympic career of both conkers comes to an end, and there are no successors to continue the legacy.

The 29-year-old Kotaja was left hungry, and will be a strong hope for a medal at the upcoming Olympics as well. To Henry Mann there were no successes left in Paris, even though there was the T34 class World Championship bronze from 100 and 400 meters in the background.

Tähti regretted in August that there have been no young promises in recent years.

“It seems pretty dark that there haven’t been any promising juniors. A few years ago there was such a group, and some of them have quit and some didn’t reach the top,” Tähti said at the time.

to Paris the group of 16 athletes who left brought six points in addition to four medals. In addition to athletics, medal hopes were set for the archer in Paris Jere Forsberg’s to the neck, which qualified for the continuation just before the quarterfinals.

Javelin thrower Marjaana Heikkinen The series of medals that started at the London Games was interrupted in Paris, when the sixth place was hot in the final.

The number of Finnish athletes in the Paralympics has decreased significantly over the past 20 years.

Back in Athens 2004, 54 athletes from Finland went to compete and brought a total of eight medals to Finland. Four years later, there were 31 athletes in Beijing, 35 in London and 26 in Rio de Janeiro. A group equal to the size of Paris left for Tokyo.