Finnish Men Complete Universiade Success with Relay Bronze

Earlier in the day, the Finnish women's relay team secured gold. The Finnish men's team, however, completed the Universiade success by winning bronze in the 4×7.5 km relay at the Turin Winter Universiade.

The team was composed of Topias Kemppi, Markus Kasanen, Eelis Valikainen, and Nico Bennert. Finland lost to the victorious Japan by 35 seconds, while Switzerland captured the silver medal by finishing 20.9 seconds behind Japan.

– “The women set such a fine example of how the relay should be executed, so we tried to follow in their footsteps. We must be pleased with the medal,” said Kemppi, referring to the Finnish women's relay gold.

– “Topias delivered his leg exactly as planned; although the second skier fell a bit behind, it allowed us to get moving with Japan. I monitored the race from behind and on the final leg tried to make up a gap to finish with a small margin,” added Kasanen.

– “The first two legs went almost exactly as scripted, but I couldn’t quite perform to the needed level today. Nonetheless, we secured a medal,” explained Valikainen.

– “Swiss and Japanese teams were simply the better ones today. We are happy with what we achieved,” summarized Bennert in a relay statement, as noted by the Olympic Committee press release.

Source: Olympic Committee press release