Finnish cross-country skiing coach Veikko Anttonen expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of announcer Hans Zimmermann during the women’s classic race at the Beijing Olympics. His words are reported by Ilta-Sanomat.
Anttonen accused the announcer of helping Russian skier Natalya Nepryaeva. According to the coach, Zimmermann loudly counted the seconds separating the athlete from the third place, which was occupied by Finn Krista Pärmäkoski. “The announcer is forbidden to behave like this. The Finnish team should protest this,” Anttonen said. He added that the employee should be suspended from work at the Olympics.
The Finnish specialist noted that now the announcers are not forbidden to count the seconds behind. In this regard, Anttonen called for a ban on counting time to be included in the regulations for the work of the announcer at the stadium. In his opinion, the stadium employee should not put athletes in an unequal position by their actions.
On February 10, Nepryaeva took fourth place in the 10 km race in the classic style. The Norwegian skier Teresa Johaug became the winner. The silver and bronze medals were won by Finnish athletes Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Pärmäkoski.
Russian skiers won one gold, three silver and one bronze medals at the Beijing Olympics. Athletes will play six sets of awards.
Source: Lenta
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