The Finnish runner was 16th in the fastest marathon in World Championship history. Of the Europeans, only three runners still managed him.
Helsinki/Eugene, Oregon
Magnificent running the fastest marathon in the history of the World Cup brought the 24-year-old Alisa Vainio 16th place. In the comparison of Europeans, Vainio was no less than the fourth best.
Vainio, representing Lappeenranta’s Urheilu-Mieh, ran in Eugene, USA with a time of 2.30.29. He missed his April record of 2:29:56 by just over half a minute.
“The beginning was really good and I felt like a bit of a jerk. There was such a good group that it didn’t make any sense to try harder”, Vainio recounted his competition.
If the trip felt like traveling on a train during the first lap, i.e. 14 kilometers, the group started to fall apart in the second lap, and Vainio himself noticed that he did not have as good a ride as he had hoped. He considered the result a battle victory.
“I wasn’t feeling sharp and strong. Such a piece of butter.”
Ethiopia ran to victory in Monday’s women’s World Cup marathon Gotytom Gebreslase. He ran away from the Kenyan Judith Jeptum Koririlta after a good 40 kilometers and went his way. Gebreslasen’s winning result was 2.18.11.
Britain’s Paula Radcliffen The race record of 2:20:57, set in Helsinki in 2005, was on paper on Monday: the four fastest women ran under Radcliffe’s time.
Vainion ahead of the Europeans, only the Kenyan-born representative of Israel, who got the bronze medal around his neck, managed to finish ahead of the Europeans Lonah Chemtai Salpeterranked 12th in Britain Jess Piasecki and Bulgaria, who ran 15th Militsa Mirtsheva.
of Israel athletes compete in European events, such as the European Championships, and are included in the continent’s statistics. For example, Salpeter is the 10,000m European Championship gold medalist from Berlin 2018.
Vainio’s ranking rose steadily during the competition. He said that running in a group helped with travel.
“Carolina was wrong when starting the round. Then we threw tsemps to each other and continued together. At some point, I just continued myself,” Vainio said to the 25th-placed Swede Carolina Wikström referring to.
In an interview with Yle, Vainio added that running together also brought challenges.
“There was a Chinese guy who messed around a bit and jumped in front sometimes and stuff like that, but that brought such excitement to the trip,” he said.
Vainio felt his speed fell flat during the race. His coach Jarmo Viskari told Yle a good ten kilometers before the finish line that he believed in the final time of 2:29 and the record, but it ended up being a dream.
“Today was like this. Let’s hope that records will be set somewhere else.”
On the first one In his World Cup marathon in Doha, Qatar, Vainio ran in very hot and humid conditions with a time of 2:56:30 and finished 26th.
The result now improved by ten notches and the time by almost half an hour, and I felt better. Instead of the emergency tent, Vainio headed for recovery and the phone.
“I’ll probably call my mother at home. And for dad,” Vainio told Yle and hoped his parents would be proud of his performance.