Finnish Nordic Combined shooting star Ilkka Herola
has another title under his belt. The 18-year-old
form Siilinja"rvi is the new summer national
champion in Finland, his brother Matti Herola was
taking the second place and Ville Heikkinen coming
in third. Janne Ryyna"nen was not starting
and chose to focus on training in Rovaniemi instead.
After the ski jumping part, Herola was already 26
second in the lead by delivering a good jump of
114,5 metres which gave him 111,2 points. His brother
Matti Herola followed with a point value of 104,7
and Ville Heikkinen who went out on the track 30
seconds after Ilkka Herola accumulated 103,7 points.
In the end, Herola reigned supreme by also setting
the fastest cross-country time with 21:17.1 for
the 10 kilometres of roller skiing in Lahti. He
crossed the finish line a clear 35 seconds ahead
of brother Matti and a whopping 1:00.2 ahead of
Ville Heikkinen.
With an overall tenth place in the Summer Grand
Prix, Ilkka Herola was happy with his summer so
far: "I have left the Summer Grand Prix with
good feeling. My results were better than last year
and I have definitely made a step forward in my
skiing. Today, my jumping was very good but I am
now a little bit tired. The cross-country part was
still good, I have not lost anything of my shape
after the Summer Grand Prix"
In the age category U 20, Eero Hirvonen won ahead
of Marcus Torni (+39,5) and Leevi Mutru (+1:17,8).
