Later today I plan to follow Finnish long distance championship races. Eikka did a very nice run yesterday and will be the last starter of all A-finalists. Actually based on the split times Muukkonen was still ahead him on the last control, but Eikka finished faster. Being the very last starter is a challenging place to start, but I really hope Eikka will have a solid start for his race and get a good flow for his race and even possible be able to get some benefit from other runners in the end.
Good luck for all the other HS runners as well!
Actually this brings in some memories from some past Finnish short distance championship in 1998. So maybe some kind of "kiikkustuolimuistelo" is allowed this time...
I was then running in H16 and there was three qualification groups. I succeeded to win one and club mate Hannu Saviharju one and Tuomas Mattila won the third.
http://www.joutsenonkullervo.fi/suunnistus/tulosar...
In the final I was the last starter and felt quite nervous but excited. If I remember correctly we had only six controls in our course (one leg was a long one) and I did first four well and there was only second last and last control left. I managed to do a big two minutes mistake for the second last control and ruined my race. How disappointed I was after that and did not even get a plaque!
http://www.joutsenonkullervo.fi/suunnistus/tulosar...
Luckily next day in Finnish relay championship did a good run again and changed in the 1st position after first leg. Unfortunately the rest of the relay wasn't so successful for us...