Paavo Puurunen

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Paavo Puurunen (born August 28, 1973 in Kuhmo , Finland ) is a former Finnish biathlete .

Career

Puurunen came for the first time in the 1994/95 season to some appearances in the Biathlon World Cup. From the following season he was used regularly and was also at the start of the 1996 World Championships . With the Finnish relay he reached the 6th place as the final runner, with the 11th place in the sprint race he achieved his best individual result to date. In the following two years Puurunen came to several World Cup appearances, but was only rarely able to place among the 30 best athletes. It was not until the 1998 Winter Olympics that he achieved a 9th place in the sprint race, which also meant the first top 10 placement in the Finn's career.

For the first time, Puurunen drew more attention to himself at the 1999 World Championships . In the sprint and pursuit races held in his home town of Kontiolahti, he finished 11th and 16th, in the individual race in Oslo 9th. The Finn just missed his first medal in the mass start race, in which he finished fourth in just six seconds on the bronze rank were missing. At the World Championships that took place a year later , he was able to repeat his top 10 placements with 8th place in the mass start and 10th place in the sprint.

Despite the occasional good individual results, the world championship title for Puurunen over 20 kilometers at the 2001 Biathlon World Championships in Pokljuka came as a surprise to many. Twenty years after his compatriot Heikki Ikola won the title , Puurunen again won a World Cup gold medal. The next podium was achieved by Puurunen just in time for the World Championships in 2003 , when he won the bronze medal in the pursuit. The Finn also achieved his other top 10 placings with 6th place in the mass start (2003) and 8th and 7th place in sprint and pursuit (2004) mostly at world championships.

The mass start at the 2006 Winter Olympics turned into his last big race : with a faultless shooting result, the Finn only had to admit defeat to the stronger runners Michael Greis , Tomasz Sikora and Ole Einar Bjørndalen and achieved his best with 4th place Olympic result. In addition to the two World Cup medals, this was the third best result of his career, which he ended after the 2005/06 season. Puurunen achieved more than half of his top 10 placements at World Championships or Olympic Winter Games.

Before the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver returned Puurunen again in active competition. At the end of the 2008/09 season he won the sprint title at the Finnish Championships . At the Olympics, it was Puurunen's fourth participation, he was 73rd in the sprint and 53rd in the individual.

Puurunen works alongside Sanna-Leena Perunka for broadcasts of biathlon competitions as a co-commentator and biathlon expert for the Finnish television YLE .

Biathlon World Cup placements

The table shows all placements (depending on the year, including the Olympic Games and World Championships).

  • 1st - 3rd Place: Number of podium placements
  • Top 10: Number of placements in the top ten (including podium)
  • Points ranks: Number of placements within the point ranks (including podium and top 10)
  • Starts: Number of races run in the respective discipline
  • Relay: including mixed relays
placement singles sprint persecution Mass start Season total
1st place 1 1
2nd place  
3rd place 1 1 2
Top 10 2 6th 7th 7th 28 50
Scoring 16 41 31 11 51 150
Starts 48 92 56 11 51 258
Status: after the 2010/2011 season

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Puurunen, Paavo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish biathlete
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Kuhmo , Finland