Tero Seppälä recovering for the SC championships in roller biathlon - with the entire men's national team

The race weekend opens with Friday's open practices. On Saturday, you will ski speed races and on Sunday you will ski normal trips. The SC championships end the domestic biathlon summer competition season.

"More than 170 athletes from 37 different clubs have signed up for the weekend starts", says the general secretary of the event Jarno Lautamatti from Kontiolahti Athletes ry, which organizes the race.

All men's national team athletes have signed up. The women's national team includes Nastassia Kinnunen of Kontiolahti Athletes, who won bronze at the World Championships in roller biathlon at the end of August, and Noora-Kaisa Keränen of Ahvenisto Biathlon Skiers.

Tero Seppälä: "We are recovering"

For Tero Seppälä, who represents Kiiloja in Haapajärvi and lives next to the race stadium, the weekend races are the first race of the fall on roller skis.

“SM medals are being distributed and we are fighting for victory. It's nice to be able to ski under pressure with a number tag on your chest from time to time. The competitions are a good reminder of which things are working and what still needs to be paid attention to," Seppälä says.

Seppälä was already supposed to compete at the Martin Fourcade Nordic Festival in France last weekend, but food poisoning on the way prevented him from participating.

"We're still recovering a bit, but shouldn't we have time to rehabilitate this weekend."

Seppälä says the summer training went well.

“For a long time in North Karelia, I have trained and stayed healthy. At least the number of shooting practice times is such that it should be enough. Another focus has been the muscle strength of the upper body - quite a few training trips have been made to the climbs of Koli during the summer."

You can follow the event live on Sanomalehti Karjalainen on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 1 p.m.

More information:

rel ="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Competition invitation, program and registrants
• Saturday's sprint race starts at 11 a.m. and Sunday's normal distance race at 10 a.m.
• The public has free access to the stands / no admission tickets.