Jukka Keskisalo competing in Zurich (© Getty Images)
The hosts Finland will take on Italy in an indoor match in Tampere’s Pirkka-hall on Saturday 5 February.
This match started for the first time in Tampere two years ago, and the tradition was continued in Ancona, Italy last year. Italy won both the men’s and women’s matches in 2007 and 2008, but this time Jarmo Mäkelä, the Director of Coaching of the Finnish Athletics Federation, is expecting more from the home team.
"The beginning of this indoor season has been promising, and so has been the news from training camps in different parts of the world," says Mäkelä.
The Italy-match will be a very important opportunity for many Finns to break the Entry Standard for the European Indoor Championships which take place at the start of March in Turin in March. Sprinters like Juha Sonck in the 60mH, and Jarkko Ruostekivi, Timo Salonen and Joni Rautanen in the 60m, have had a good start for the season.
European U23 200m champion "Visa Hongisto is aiming for the 400m in Turin, and he is one of the most interesting athletes on Saturday. So are for example Petteri Lax and Juho-Matti Pimiä in the Long Jump, Oskari Frösen and Niko Kyyhkynen in the High Jump and our middle distance runners", continues Mäkelä.
Mäkelä is hoping to send least 10 Finnish athletes to Turin. Unfortunately Finland’s best female sprinter, Johanna Manninen, decided to stop her indoor season after one 60m race. "Manninen had a hamstring operation on Monday. Still I hope some women could reach the Turin team, too," Mäkelä says.
Keskisalo opens his season in the 3000m
Jukka Keskisalo, the European 3000m Steeplechase champion, will not take part in the European indoor championships, but his season opening race, the 3000m, will for sure be followed with a big interest.
Keskisalo who was training in the Colombian mountains in January feels comfortable enough to run a couple of races indoors, the first in Tampere and the second probably at the Finnish Championships in Vaasa 21 - 22 February.
Surprisingly for someone with an 8:16 PB for the 3000m Steeplechase Keskisalo has never ran a sub-8 minutes in the 3000m, but in Tampere it will be possible, as Kenyan Remi Limo Ndiwa, the 2006 World Junior champion in the 1500m in 2006, will keep the pace.
The Italian Team in Tampere is a mixture of promising young athletes at the age of 20 - 23 and some more experienced ones like Nicola Ciotta and Filippo Campioli in the High Jump.
Also Daniele Meucci in the 3000m and Daniela Reina in the Women’s 800 are well known while Mario Scapini, the 2007 European Junior champion in the 1500m is one example of a possibly brilliant future stars.
At the same time as the match the annual Tähtien Kisat (Star Games) international meeting will take place. It means that talking part in the same events but outside the match scoring there will be Great Britain’s Chris Tomlinson in the men’s Long Jump, Douglas Montell in the Women’s 60 + 100m, along with other international class athletes.
Antti-Pekka Sonninen for the IAAF
More information on the organising club Tampereen Pyrintö´s website: www.tampereenpyrinto.fi
