Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja
Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Riikka Sarasoja (2010) |
||||||||||||||||||||||
Full name | Riikka Johanna Sarasoja-Lilja | |||||||||||||||||||||
nation | Finland | |||||||||||||||||||||
birthday | February 23, 1982 | |||||||||||||||||||||
place of birth | Lempäälä , Finland | |||||||||||||||||||||
size | 164 cm | |||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 57 kg | |||||||||||||||||||||
Career | ||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
society | Lappeen Riento | |||||||||||||||||||||
status | resigned | |||||||||||||||||||||
End of career | 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medal table | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Placements in the cross-country skiing world cup | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
last change: August 9, 2019 |
Riikka Johanna Sarasoja-Lilja (born February 23, 1982 in Lempäälä ) is a former Finnish cross-country skier .
Career
Sarasoja-Lilja is a student and starts for Lappeen Riento . She made her first big appearance in 2001 at the Junior World Championships in Karpacz and Szklarska , where she became world champion with the Finnish 4x5 kilometer relay. In the individual, a tenth place over 5 kilometers was her best result, while she was twelfth in the sprint. At the beginning of the following season 2001/02 Sarasoja-Lilja appeared in Kuopio for the first time in the cross-country skiing world cup and was 75th over 5 kilometers. It was the only World Cup appearance until the following season. At the Junior World Championships in Schonach , the Finn was fourth in the sprint, seventh over 15 kilometers and twelfth over five kilometers. In the next few years Sarasoja-Lilja was mostly used in lower-class races such as the FIS and Continental Cup, only rarely in the World Cup. The 2003 Winter Universiade in Tarvisio brought good results, it won silver in the sprint and bronze over 5 kilometers. In February of that year she won her first World Cup points in Reit im Winkl as 15th in the sprint. With the relay she finished in November 2003 in Beitostølen in fourth place for the first time in the top ten. In January 2004 Sarasoja-Lilja finished third in Otepää , a result that she has achieved several times since then. In February 2004, she finished tenth in the sprint in Trondheim, her best result to date in an individual race.
She started the 2007/08 season with two poor results in Kuusamo . After she remained without World Cup points, she started in the Scandinavian Cup . From mid-January she came back to the World Cup and landed in the points again in Canmore . However, Sarasoja-Lilja did not manage to consistently place in the points. At the beginning of the 2008/09 season , she and her partner managed to finish fifth again in the top five in the Düsseldorf team sprint . At the Finnish championships in 2009 in Jämijärvi she won bronze in the individual over 10 km classic and a little later in Kontiolahti also silver over 30 km. At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec , which followed shortly afterwards , she again fell short of expectations as 24th in the pursuit, 20th in the sprint and 24th in the individual over 30 km.
At the end of the season, Sarasoja-Lilja succeeded in Lahti in sixth place in an individual World Cup among the top ten. In the Tour de Ski 2009/10 , she finished 14th. It was her first fully contested Tour de Ski. She then traveled to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with this good result . She finished the 10 km race in 31st place, before finishing in a good 21st place in the pursuit. In the 30 km race in classic style, she achieved her best individual result with 12th place. Only in the team sprint was she able to place even better together with Riitta-Liisa Roponen in eighth place.
At the end of the 2009/10 season , Sarasoja-Lilja achieved another very good result among the world's best with tenth place in the sprint in Oslo . However, it still did not succeed in firmly establishing itself there. She won her first national title at the Finnish Championships. The Tour de Ski 2010/11 she finished 18th. However, she was again without a medal at the following Nordic World Ski Championships in 2011 , as she was 18th in the pursuit race over 15 kilometers, 27th in the sprint and 33rd in the mass start race over 30 kilometers. In the following season 2011/12 she started with the team with a good third place in the relay race in Sjusjøen . Sarasoja-Lilja surprisingly won the qualification at the sprint in Düsseldorf, but only came in sixth in the final. In February 2012 she achieved her best result in a World Cup race with the relay as second in Nové Město na Moravě .
At the Nordic World Ski Championships in 2013 in Val di Fiemme , she and Krista Lähteenmäki won the bronze medal in the team sprint and thus her first ever World Championship medal after 12 years in international cross-country skiing. In the 10 km individual race, however, she was 12th again behind the top 10 positions. Also with the season she missed a medal again as fifth.
A year later, Sarasoja-Lilja started at her second Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, despite her lack of top results . In the sprint she was eliminated in qualification and was 36th in the end. She did not compete in the other races. At the 2015 Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun , she and Anne Kyllönen finished tenth in the team sprint. She ended her career after the 2014/15 season.
Placements in the World Cup
World Cup Statistics
The table shows the placements achieved in detail.
- 1st – 3rd place: Number of podium placements
- Top 10: Number of places in the top ten
- Points ranks: Number of placements within the point ranks
- Starts: Number of races run in the respective discipline
- Note: In the distance races, the classification is based on the FIS.
placement | Distance races a | Skiathlon pursuit |
sprint | Stage race b |
total | Team c | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
≤ 5 km | ≤ 10 km | ≤ 15 km | ≤ 30 km | > 30 km | sprint | Season | |||||
1st place | |||||||||||
2nd place | 2 | ||||||||||
3rd place | 4th | ||||||||||
Top 10 | 1 | 1 | 7th | 9 | 5 | 11 | |||||
Scoring | 1 | 18th | 4th | 3 | 6th | 38 | 7th | 77 | 9 | 11 | |
Starts | 2 | 41 | 6th | 4th | 11 | 54 | 11 | 129 | 9 | 11 | |
Status: end of season 2014/15 |
World Cup overall placements
season | total | distance | sprint | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Points | space | Points | space | Points | space | |
2002/03 | 16 | 76. | - | - | 16 | 53. |
2003/04 | 80 | 51. | 14th | 61. | 66 | 29 |
2004/05 | 27 | 64. | - | - | 27 | 39. |
2005/06 | 59 | 55. | - | - | 59 | 30th |
2006/07 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
2007/08 | 69 | 50. | 34 | 38. | 35 | 45. |
2008/09 | 171 | 36. | 75 | 36. | 96 | 27. |
2009/10 | 294 | 26th | 124 | 29 | 98 | 27. |
2010/11 | 301 | 26th | 135 | 24. | 80 | 27. |
2011/12 | 367 | 24. | 203 | 19th | 144 | 24. |
2012/13 | 300 | 27. | 179 | 23. | 71 | 30th |
2013/14 | 41 | 74. | - | - | 41 | 46. |
2014/15 | 92 | 56. | 7th | 81. | 85 | 25th |
Web links
- Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
- Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
- Official website (Finnish)
- Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja on hs.fi
Individual evidence
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Sarasoja-Lilja, Riikka |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sarasoja, Riikka Johanna (full name at birth) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish cross-country skier |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 23, 1982 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Lempäälä , Finland |