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After several weeks of discussions, the news finally came that Finnkampen 2020 would be ending. This weekend, Sweden and Finland will be installed in Tampere, before a maximum of 5,000 spectators in the stands.
But it will be a competition that will put the athletics association to the test. And it will cost.
– As it seems, Finnkampen will cost just over a million kronor or more than planned, says marketing manager Jan Larsson.
Why are costs soaring? It is not easy to send 112 athletes to another country in the middle of a hot pandemic.
Will put the whole team to the test
The Swedish national team, for example, will not be based in Finland, but in a hotel in Upplands Väsby on the outskirts of Stockholm. With a chartered plane, the athletes will be flown to Tampere on the same day they will compete.
– We are done with a rental plan now, says Jan Larsson.
– Half the company leaves on Saturday morning and flies home on Saturday night. The second half goes Sunday morning and Sunday night at home.
He continues:
– The next thing we are working on is testing and it is not entirely simple …
The entire Swedish team will undergo so-called PCR tests that show whether they currently have an ongoing infection with covid-19. The test must have been taken no later than 72 hours before entering Finland.
– We have managed to reserve almost all of our assets in various centers, but we will need to find special solutions for some. Then it is said that there will be a response to the test within 24 hours and then everyone gets a certificate that they must bring with them to Finland, explains Jan Larsson.
“It is very troublesome”
And it is this with testing which means that the captain of the national team, Karin Torneklint, will not be able to call in replacements on short notice, which otherwise tends to happen almost every year.
Let’s say one of the 112 selected from Sweden wakes up with a cold this weekend, then Torneklint suddenly sits in a complicated seat.
– Yes, I can admit that it is very troublesome. We already have problems getting the logistics around all the events of this great team. We can’t screen more people who should be prepared in case someone gets sick, says Karin Torneklint.
So what do you do if someone gets sick?
– Then we can use the ones in Finland. But even there we are limited because half of the workforce remains in Stockholm. We have thought a bit about who could enter, but it is difficult …
– I really hope that all those selected now can also compete. Otherwise, there will be problems.
Maybe we will see some creative solutions then?
– Then it can be. I heard, for example, that Michel Tornéus will be at the venue this weekend and will work for Radiosporten, so he will be sitting in the stands. When I heard that, I thought: “Well then we have a reservation instead!”says Torneklint and laughs.
– Maybe I can go to Radiosporten and pick it up, if there is a crisis.
As SportExpressen previously reported, Armand Duplantis has rejected Finnkampen, but the team includes names like Daniel Ståhl, Angelica Bengtsson, Meraf Bahta, Khaddi Sagnia, Thobias Montler and Melwin Lycke Holm.
