Finland vs. Sweden
Date: 2001-10-02
_________________

 

The very top of the Finnish elite racketlon players announced yesterday that they will participate in Gothenburg Racketlon World Open. On the men's side Toni Kemppinen and Mikko Kärkkäinen will take part - i.e. number 1 and 2 on the top 4 list from the latest Finnish national championships:

1 Toni Kemppinen
2 Mikko Kärkkäinen
(3 Harri Suutarinen)
(4 Jaakko Syrjänen)


From the the ladies' list from the same tournament Katja Aminoff is joining;

1 Katja Aminoff
(2 Hanna Miestamo)
(3 Reetta Markkanen)
(4 Aila Manni)

This means that history will be written; It is the first time that the Finnish racketlon elite will face the Swedish in the same racketlon tournament.

And it is classic - in the sense that competitions between Finland and Sweden always are. Irrespective of whether the arena is athletics or icehockey Finnkampen (English: "the Finn Fight") always attracts extra attention, arguably of more than normal Derby character. In fact, the yearly athletics Finnkamp is said to be the only athletics competition between two countries in the world. The fact that Finland and Sweden are the only two countries in which racketlon is an established sport should not make this less interesting!

(Coincidentally, it was in Gothenburg only a month ago that this year's athletics Finnkamp took place. Who won? Well, we should not dwell on the subject for reasons of politeness towards our Finnish visitors - but revenge just might be one of the reasons behind Finns returning to Gothenburg. To be honest they are not used to loosing, at least not in athletics...)

WELCOME!

_________________________________