Close Men’s Races Highlight Day 1 of Finnish Grand Prix

Finland_flag
Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia

The Finnish Grand Prix Challenge 2015 is taking place July 3-5 in Helsinki, Finland. Day one of the three-day event provided close races on the men’s side in a range of distances. The women’s races were won by much wider margins.

Similar to most men’s sprint events, the men’s 100 freestyle came down to the finish. Miikka Ruohoniemi got to the wall first with a 51.54, followed by Tuomas Kiviluoma (51.64) and Andrei Tuomola (51.67). Ruohoniemi was third at the 50, but out-split his competition to get to the wall first at the end.

There was a similar finish in the men’s 1500 freestyle, as Waltteri Rintala barely out-touched Joni Kitinoja 16:39.37 to 16:39.62. Rintala lead the race the whole way, and was 14 seconds ahead of Kitinoja at the 800. But Kitinoja chased him down, cutting Rintala’s lead in half to 7 seconds at the 1000. With 200 to go he was one and a half seconds behind, but could not make up enough ground to be victorious.

On the women’s side, Hanna-Maria Seppala took the 100 freestyle by over half of a second. She lead the race from start to finish with a winning time of 55.42. Seppala’s closest competitor was Mimosa Jallow coming in at 56.00.

The women’s 800 freestyle was also won in dominant fashion, as Eveliina Pihkamaki took the event in 9:25.10. She was 12 seconds ahead of second-place Tiia Puolakka (9:37.26). Opposite the men’s distance show, the women’s 800 started off close, but Pihkamaki slowly created a large gap between her and the rest of the field.

In semifinal action, Sami Myren claimed the top seed in the men’s 50 backstroke (26.56), while Jenna Laukkanen did the same in the women’s event (30.75).

In the 50 butterfly semifinal, Tuomas Pokkinen will be first going into the final for the men (24.60), and Emilia Pikkaraine will lead for the women (27.00).

Action continues tomorrow, with the 50 butterfly, 50 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 IM finals, as well as the 50 freestyle and 50 breaststroke semifinals.

2015 Finnish Grand Prix Challenge, Day 1 – Results

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x