Riikka Sarasoja-Lilja

Riikka Johanna Sara soy Lilja ( born February 23, 1982 in Lempäälä ) is a Finnish cross-country skier.

Career

Sara soy Lilja is a student and starts for Lappeen Riento. Your first major appearance was at the 2001 World Junior Championship in Karpacz - Szklarska where a tenth place about 5 km best result was. At the start of the following season 2001 /02 soy Sara Lilja joined in Kuopio first time in the Cross Country World Cup and was 75th over 5 kilometers. It was the only World Cup competition until the following season. At the Junior World Championships in Schonach Finland's fourth in the sprint and seventh about 15 km was. In the coming years, Sara soy Lilja was mostly used in unterklassigen race as FIS Continental Cup and, rarely in the World Cup. The Universiade in Tarvisio 2003 brought good results, she won silver in the sprint and bronze over 5 kilometers. In February, she won in Reit im Winkl as 15 in the first Sprint Cup points. With the season they finished in November 2003 in Beitostølen in fourth for the first time a placement in the top ten. In January 2004, Sara soy Lilja in Otepaeae season was third, a result that they have achieved since then several times. In February 2004, she won a sprint in Trondheim Tenth her ​​until then best result in a single race.

In the 2007/ 08 season they started with two weak results in Kuusamo. After it had no World Cup points, they started in the sequence in the Scandinavian Cup. As of mid- January, she came back to the World Cup and ended up in Canmore again in the points. However, it was not possible Sara soy Lilja, constantly placing in the points. At the beginning of the 2008/09 season, she managed to run in fifth back into the top five with her partner in the team sprint in Dusseldorf. In the Finnish Championships 2009 in Jämijärvi she won bronze in the individual 10 km classic and a little later in Kontiolahti also silver over 30 km. When a little later the following Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec she stayed in 24th in pursuit, 20th in the sprint and 24th in the individual over 30 km again fell short of expectations.

At season's end succeeded Sara soy Lilja in Lahti in sixth again in a single World Cup among the top ten. At the Tour de Ski 2009/2010, she landed on 14th place. It was her first fully contested the Tour de Ski. Then she traveled with this good result to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The race over 10 km she finished at No. 31 before she ran for a good 21 place in the persecution. In the 30 - km race in a classic style she managed to rank 12 her best individual result. Only in the team sprint she could place even better together with Riitta -Liisa Roponen eighth.

At the end of the season 2009/10 soy succeeded Sara Lilja in Oslo with the tenth place in the sprint again a very good result in the world rankings. However, she failed to continue to establish itself firmly there. In the Finnish Championships, she secured her first national title. The Tour de Ski 2010/2011, she finished in 18th place, but she remained in the following Nordic World Ski Championships again in 2011 without a medal. In the following season 2011/12 they started with the team with a solid third place finish at the season - reindeers in Sjusjøen. During the sprint in Dusseldorf Sara soy Lilja surprisingly won the qualification, but came in the final only to sixth place. In February 2012, she succeeded to the season as runner-up in Nové Město na Moravě her until then best result in a World Cup race.

In the Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Val di Fiemme, she won with Krista Lähteenmäki in the team sprint bronze medal and so after 12 years in the international cross-country skiing sport her first World Cup medal ever. However, in the 10km individual race they remained as 12, again fell short of the top 10 rankings. Even with the season they missed a medal again in fifth.

A year later launched Sara soy Lilja despite continued absence of top results with their now 31 years into her second Olympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi. She retired in the sprint from already in the qualification and was in the end not to rank 37th in the other races she entered.

Achievements

World Cup Stats

The table shows the achieved placings in detail.

  • Place 1st-3rd. Number of podiums
  • Top 10: Number of placements in the top ten
  • Scoring points: Number of placements within the points positions
  • Start: Number overflowed race in the respective discipline
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 2011–12 FIS Cross-Country World Cup 2009–10 Tour de Ski 2007–08 FIS Cross-Country World Cup Canmore (Alberta) 2008–09 FIS Cross-Country World Cup FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 2010–11 Tour de Ski FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 Fiemme Valley
683704
de