To get an idea of what the word Finnkampen means in Finland and Sweden, perhaps it would be enough to look carefully at the cover photo.

We believe that at the level of athletics the annual meeting between Finland and Sweden which takes place alternately in the two countries, is important only inferior to the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships.

For over 90 years their motto is: "the fight most strong than ever".

10.000m track walk men

Two years ago in Stockholm, Perseus Karlstrom broke the Swedish 10.000m track walk record with 38.57.45. Last year in Tampere, Perseus had a wonderful duel against Veli-Matti Partanen and improved the Swedish record to 38.39.28. This year, Perseus Karlstrom came directly from his St. Moritz high-altitude camp and improved even furher, winning with a new record of 38:03.95. 

Stockholm offered variety with good weather, sun, weak winds and up to 25 degrees. 

Right from the start, Perseus strode to the lead and settled on even km times around 3:50 min/km. After passing the halfway mark in 19:05, he recorded a second half 18:59, with a final km of 3:43. His final time of 38.03.95 was a substantial improvement in his Swedish record of 38.39.28 and Erik Tysse's Nordic record of 38:32.0 (2008). The time was barely eleven seconds from the world record (Javier Francisco Fernandez 37.53.09 2008) and the sixth fastest of all time. Now it is back to St. Moritz to continue the fine tuning before Doha. This was Perseus's seventh straight Finnkampen victory. 

Finland's Aleksi Ojala was second early on but was passed by Ato Ibanez who, in his 16th Finnkampen, took a safe second place with 41:16.01 (personal best: 40:24.99, 2018). Ojala came third at 43:01.32, in front of Joni Hava with 44:18.41 and Jaakko Määttänen with 44:40.81. Sweden won the contest 13-9.

 

 

Updated season list of 10.000m track walk:

 

	MARK	COMPETITOR	DOB	NAT	VENUE	DATE
1	38:03.95	Perseus KARLSTRÖM	02 MAY 1990	SWE	Stockholm (SWE)	24 AUG 2019
2	38:28.05	Massimo STANO	27 FEB 1992	ITA	Roma (ITA)	28 APR 2019
3	38:30.61	Dane Alex BIRD-SMITH	15 JUL 1992	AUS	Sydney (AUS)	05 APR 2019
4	38:54.20	Evan DUNFEE	28 SEP 1990	CAN	Kamloops (CAN)	07 JUL 2019
5	38:57.94	Christopher LINKE	24 OCT 1988	GER	Beeskow (GER)	17 AUG 2019
6	39:00.79	Francesco FORTUNATO	13 DEC 1994	ITA	Firenze (ITA)	15 JUN 2019
7	39:18.03	Koki IKEDA	03 MAY 1998	JPN	Sagamihara (JPN)	25 MAY 2019
8	39:31.96	Salih KORKMAZ	14 APR 1997	TUR	Bursa (TUR)	04 AUG 2019
9	39:34.40	Álvaro MARTÍN	18 JUN 1994	ESP	Castellón (ESP)	04 MAY 2019
10	39:37.10	Diego GARCÍA CARRERA	19 JAN 1996	ESP	Castellón (ESP)	04 MAY 2019

 

 

 

 

5.000m track walk women

If the men’s walk went to Sweden, Finland dominated the women’s walk, with Elisa Neuvonen (22:58;28), Hele Haapaniemi (23:02.55) and Enni Nurmi (24:36.04) taking the first 3 places.

Overall, Finland won the contest 16-5. 

Full results in the section Results or directly download from this  link: click here