New Britain herald., 1928-07-12

Helsingfors, July - GPt-This land
of a thousand lakes and intermin-
able winters has gathered together
an Olympic team which, 1t believes,
will bring fame and honor to the
Finnish nation.
Although a little country of only
100000 inhabitants, Tinland's
hardy climate has produced a race
of athletes who have given a good
account of themselves in previous
Olympiads.
In the Paris Olympics in 1924,
little Finland won ten gold medals
in the light athletic events COM
pared to the II medals won by the
United States.
Finland thus feels it has a po-
sition and reputation to defend this
year. The whole Finnish troupe
will consist of only rs to so persons,
including trainers and business
managers, but each man is picked
athlete.
Finland figures that her chances
will be best in the light athletic
sports, as was the case in previous
| Olympic contests and in wrestling.
| This latter sport is very popular In
| this country and several of the best
amateur wrestlers of Europe are
Firms. Swimming and boxing will
also bring forward Finnish COM
petitors, but the home land does not
MIN r,opy homes uDnn them
Finland, summing up, calculates
on five victories as quite certain
! the javelin throw, decathlon, 5000
and 10000 meter runs, the steeple
| chase and believes herself capable
of getting a good placing in the
| marathon. hop-step- jump. put
ting the shot, discus and 1900 meter
| race.
The celebrated Faavo Nurmi will
be the salient figure of Finland's
team. His own countrNnen know
very little OF his form this year. He
won the Finn cross-country cham
| pionship easily. In Finland there
is no doubt he will win the 5000
! and 10000 meters races.
| w llllt NltOli, " llC Npll t"V SoIu
medals in Paris, 1924, will also take
part in Amsterdam, running the
same distances as Nurmi. 5000 and
| 1000 meters. He is expected to
give Nurmi a very hot fight on the
long distances. A third man on the
same distances is kalle Matilainen,
who has developed a tremendous
rit,t .1,1 a. H.
14.45 minutes on 5000 meters, and
81 minutes on 10000 meters.
Finland expects to win the jave-
lin throwing matches as she has
done more or less consistently in
the past. Elmo Pentilla is Finland S
hope in this contest.
For the decathlon Finland will
offer farmer boy who has turned
out to be a phenomenon. Paavo
Yrjolo is considered unbeatable in
Finland as an all-around athlete in
the different events which make up
the Notwithstanding, hurdling
putting the shot, throwing the jave.
:, lin. throwing the discus, the running
high jump, running broad jump and
. pun JUMP.
Other athletes on whom Finland
is relying are Armas Wahlstedt
shot putter: Hannes kolemainen
Elmo Rastas, Martti Martelin an5
Nalno Sipila, marathon runners
Phil kinunen. 1.5o0 meter runner
p. Lagerstrom, 500 meters: Beng
Sloherg. 10 meter hurdles; Erik;
Wilen. 400 meter hurdles, and Rau
Hellberg, bicycle racer.
In the wrestling events. Finla nj
is entering men for all classes
Hjalmar Nystrom. winner OF tn,
5 European championship, will b.
8 among its grapplers. Others vii
/ be
D Edward Eersterlund. forme
Olympic. northern Europe an,
: Finnish champion lightweight an,
y Naino kokkinen, light middleweish(
When the Finn athletic deiegate
S leave Helsingfors for Amsterdam
| one of the last things they will Sc
l in Helsingfors is the statue eret e
0 10 Nurmi. which shows how enthu
siastic the Firms are for sport
&