Baltic Sea Cup, silver for Finns

At the Baltic Sea Cup tournament in St. Petersburg on Saturday, the Finns took silver. The tournament was interesting, because in the morning there were matches in all men's Olympic series in a pool of three teams. The final, on the other hand, took place in such a way that the representative of each series played against the representative of their own series for 2×1 minutes, with direct exchanges.

The Finns had good matches in the morning and cleared their way to the final. The final match was the culmination of an evening event that included martial arts demonstrations. In the final match, the judges saw the victory of St. Petersburg's first team.

Overall, the trip was exceptionally pleasant, with the Russians handling the hosting in an exemplary manner. The minibus swept along the streets of St. Petersburg as needed, and the dining tables were not spared.

Finland was represented by our club Teemu Heino (+80 kg), Petteri Kauppinen (-80 kg) and Juho Kostiainen (-68 kg) and the team was strengthened by Sami Lahtinen (-58 kg) from Loviisa Taekwondo.

The team was coached by Sampo Pajulampi and led by Markku Murto, president of the Finnish Taekwondo Association. The balance of several official and unofficial side events was quite positive and the cooperation will surely continue.

Score:

Finland Belarus 2-3

Finland-Petersburg II 4-0

Final:

Finland – Peter I 22-29