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Finland delays its synchro events but maintains them


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The Novice team Diamond Edges at the start of the season. (Credits: Ville Vairinen - 2020)

Better late than not at all. While many teams are not allowed to skate due to Covid-19, Finland has decided to postpone its competition calendar.

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On 14 January, the Finnish Figure Skating Association published an updated competition calendar with reserve dates. The goal is for as many athletes as possible to compete in the national competitions this spring.

Although Finland's Covid-19 situation has not eased - the latest statistics in the country: 40,772 lab-confirmed infections and 633 deaths attributed to coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic - the federation and the athletes hope that it will improve and that it will be possible to organize some competitions. For this reason, the federation delayed the competitions for a few weeks.


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Festa Aboensia - Junior team. (Credits: Ville Vairinen - 2020)

The Finnish Championships for Senior, Junior and Novice teams will be held on March 13-14 (original date was February 27-28). If it is not possible to organize the competitions, the reserve days are April 10-11.

The competition dates for the Interclub series are as follows:

- Beginners, Adults and Novices: March 20.
- Seniors, Juniors, Novices, Minors, Adults and Masters: March 27-28.

There are no reserve dates for those competitions.

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There are also plans to arrange an invitational competition from 6 to 7 February. It will be a competition for those teams that are able and willing to participate. The competition organiser will send a survey of club participation and then decide whether or not to hold a competition and for what series.

Of course, organising competitions require that the country's health situation is good enough and that infections are reduced. Right now, with the vaccination program underway, there are good hopes.

Last November, the Finnish Olympic Committee and the Finnish Figure Skating Association decided that national team athletes could continue training despite the COVID-19 situation by following the strict instructions given. That means that all four Senior teams and some Junior teams have been able to practice almost normally this season.

However, ice rinks have been closed to other teams, but if the infection situation improves by the end of January, so they may be able to train as well. This applies to teams in the Helsinki metropolitan area; conditions may differ in other parts of Finland.

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