Mutru, Kettunen win small hill nationals, Oinas with historic first

The Finnish national championships from the small hill, Taivalkoski’s K 73, had their expected winner: national team member Leevi Mutru took the title ahead of Jussi Salo and Olli Samela in the men’s category. Mutru finished with a clear margin of one minute and 39 seconds, Salmela reached the finish two minutes and 58 seconds later.

In the U-18 category, Atte Kettunen clinched the win ahead of up-and-coming Wille Karhumaa. Karhumaa had jumped to the sixth place and started a furious catch-up race. The fastest cross-country time rewarded the youngster with the second place overall after finishing the 8 km in 20:10.0. In the end, it was 50 seconds that divided jumping winner Kettunen and Karhumaa at the finish line. Otto Niittykoski captured rank three, +1:08.

In an historic fist, Annamaija Oinas won the first-ever ladies title in Nordic Combined in Finland. Oinas was clearly the strongest athlete, jumping to the jumping victory with 91.2 points. The second-fastestncross-country time (17:57 for 5 km) gave Oinas the win ahead of fastest skier Pinja Koivisto, who improved the intermediate rank four to the final silver medal, +34 seconds behind Oinas. Elli Seppänen claimed rank three by finishing one minute and 26 second behind Oinas.