Kimmo Savolainen new on Turkish coaching staff

Pekka Niemelae will get some support from home in his work as head coach of the Turkish Ski Jumping team. Kimmo Savolainen will replace Frederic Zoz on the coaching staff of the Turks.

The 42-year-old, who has already been coaching for 15 years and recently worked with the Nordic Combined national teams of Italy and Finland, shall help his fellow Finn Niemelae to prepare the young Turkish ski jumpers for the upcoming Olympic Games 2018 and, in the long term, also for the Olympics in 2026, for which Turkey is preparing a bid.

At the same time, a program was started in Erzurum in order to get more kids enthused about Ski Jumping. The two former Turkish jumpers Faik Yueksel and Mustafa Oestazyonar are currently coaching about 40 boys and girls there between the ages of 7 and 10.

"Faik and Mustafa now start working with the kids and will take care of the basic day-to-day work in Erzurum. Kimmo and I will support both of them, in addition to our job with the A-Team, and we will often be in Erzurum. Now we have a real system that will help us achieving our short and long-term goals. This is important news for Ski Jumping in Turkey. So far we have only had 6 ski jumpers in the entire country, now we have 40 kids more and the Turkish Ski Association even wants to get more kids involved in the sport and support their careers", Pekka Niemelae told Berkutschi.

The preparation for the new season started for Niemelae's team with a training camp in Belek, before they will head to Planica (SLO) on May 22nd for the first jumps.