Five Nordic championships for Taekwondo athletes
The PM races continued on Sunday, January 22. for motion sequences. As many as 145 athletes were aiming for medals and the level was as expected. No free medals or even final places were awarded in any series. At the end of a tight competition day, Team Finland was crowned the best team of the competition!
The taekwondo athletes represented the Finnish team in almost all age groups and participated in several doubles and groups. In total, TU got 5 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze.
Aino Kortelainen, who was also in the master group together with Sofia Sarala and Kuopio Taekwondo's Airada Heikkinen, took the gold from the individual series with an iron performance. Sofia was also crowned doubles champion, when she won the double time with Herttoniemi Taekwondo's Lassi Kaasinen.
Ville Lehtinen also took the championship in his group series. In addition to Ville, the team included Mudokwan Vantaa's Tatu Iivanainen and Taekwondo Vihdin's Sampsa Aukio. Ville didn't stop working because in addition to the group, he also participated in the pair and coached other members of Team Finland for a long day.
Laura Kinnunen fought for no less than three medals, when a silver medal from the individual series and a bronze medal from both the group and a pair were hung around her neck. As a partner, Laura had Taekwondo Vihdi's Sampsa Aukio. Laura got team bronze with Mudokwa Vantaa's Laura Wild and Budokwai Taekwondo's Miia Siutila.
Marita Jaakkola was also seen on the carpet in several series. Marita got a handsome silver in the individual category and bronze in the group category with Jenny Nyman and Kati Kuosmanen from the Espoo Hwarang Team. Correspondingly, Inés Benaissa earned bronze in the doubles with an excellent performance with Budokwa's Alex Karlsson. About Inés's competition performance and also an amazingly powerful presentation.
Kirsimarja Raitasalo and Luca Lonka made their PM competition debut. Neither of them reached the medals this time, but the performances did not leave anyone cold. Both are allowed to expect strong results in the future. Alex Jürgens didn't even make it to the medals in the tight series of junior boys, where the top places were divided by an extremely narrow margin. Alex was also right near the top.
From a coaching point of view, it was a pleasure to watch the activities of both the TU athletes and the entire Team Finland. Athletes train with determination, and this same determination is also reflected in their performances on the competition mats. The top places are decided by very small differences, but it's great to see that both the number of athletes and the quality of what they do are constantly going up.
It's good to move on from here!
