Biathlon: Suvi Minkkinen writes a fine page in Finnish history
She trembled all the way to the end but held her nerve. At the age of 30, Suvi Minkkinen won her first world medal on Friday afternoon. In the sprint at the world championships in Lenzerheide (Switzerland), the Finn pulled off another major coup in a season in which everything seems to be going her way.
On 7 December last year, in the World Cup sprint in Kontiolahti (Finland), the biathlete with 182 elite starts scored her first career podium at this level of competition. It was a new milestone for a woman who until then had never been one of the favourites for the top 3.
Now firmly established in fifth place in the overall rankings, the native of Joutsa (Finland) arrived in the canton of Grisons at the head of her team. One of the outsiders, it didn’t take long for her to pull off a coup of her own.
“There are still a lot of expectations surrounding these World Championships”.Suvi Minkkinen at Yle
Suvi Minkkinen, who posted one of the very few 10/10s of the day in the snow, was even in the lead at the finish area for a while. Defeated by Germany’s Franziska Preuss and then France’s Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, the new world champion in the discipline, the Finn finally took bronze. She won the trophy with a margin of just over a second over local contender Lena Haecki-Gross.
“There’s always a lot of anticipation around these World Championships. The start of the day wasn’t very easy. I had to prepare myself because the conditions were really not easy,” she told Yle. I had the right strategy and I gave it everything I had.
With this courageous third place, she became only the third Finn to win a World Championship medal , after Tuija Vuoksiala at the individual event in Lake Placid (USA) in 1987 and the legend Kaisa Mäkäräinen, who won six awards throughout her career.
A historic performance that delighted many in the Finnish clan. “It’s hard to believe she’s so strong. But today, that’s what happened,” said her coach Erik Torneus-Kulstad. It was really exciting. It was really incredible. The conditions worked in her favour and she really believed in her chances.
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