CRESWELL – The Finnish are coming, the Finnish are coming!
Hey, that’s news that’s worth shouting from the streets.
Finland’s track team plans to stay in Creswell throughout the 2022 World Athletics Championships from July 15-24 in Eugene. Dr. Lonn Robertson, a retired dentist who now runs marathons and trains other runners, says hosting Finland’s team is a win-win for the community.
They are expected to arrive on July 5, thereby avoiding all the Fourth of July fanfare.
“The athletes will be hiking and riding bikes while they train out here, so it’s not a financial win for anybody,” Robertson said. “We wanted this to happen for the community, to promote sports and athleticism. We think running is pretty darn cool. We are TrackTown USA, and the rest of the world knows it.
“I was literally standing in Cape Town, South Africa, one Sunday morning and the announcer says, to my embarrassment, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we are so honored to have Dr. Lonn Robertson, he comes all the way from Eugene, Oregon, the track capital of the world, and I thought, ‘Oh God, now I’ve got to run.’
“I thought, they know it, and we don’t know it. We don’t think of ourselves that way. But I’m on a mission to change that.
“The U.S. understands it, I just don’t think people around here really understand it.”
Part of Eugene’s rich running history stems from Oregon’s Steve Prefontaine, a independent runner who caught the country’s attention during the early ’70s. One of Prefontaine’s few disappointments was finishing fourth in the 5,000 meters at the 1972 Munich Olympics – a race won by Finland’s Lasse Viren.
In 1975, while training for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, Prefontaine organized a five-stop tour for the Finnish national team – but Prefontaine died in a car crash on the night of May 30, 1975 at the age of 24 after driving Frank Shorter home to Coos Bay.
So longtime Oregon track fans remember the Finns well. Paavo Nurmi, often called “The Flying Finn,” owns 22 world records in middle-distance and long-distance running. He competed in 1920, ’24, and ’28.
As of this writing, no other cities had reached an agreement to host a competing country for the worlds, but Robertson said Siuslaw was working on a deal with France.
Robertson said one of his toughest challenges was arranging hotel stays during a month when demand will never be higher. He said Finland sent a note saying that Creswell seemed like the best fit for them. Robertson said the feeling was mutual.
“At first, Ukraine said they just needed time two weeks before, then they could stay at the competitors’ village in Eugene – so unwittingly, I gave up my reservations and reserved for July 2-13, then Ukraine dropped out,” Robertson said. “Then Finland came in and needed rooms from July 5th through the 18th – it was like a ping pong match and never knowing where the ball is coming from.
“So the hotel has been patient with me, since I have this moving target of when and how many people. There will be some personnel staying in homes and airbnb’s, because there simply won’t be enough hotel space for everybody.”
Another “hurdle” to clear is upgrading the high school fields to get them NCAA-ready for events such as the shot put, long jump and pole vault. One big help is coming from four-time Olympian Lance Deal, who is building a hammer cage and renting it to local high schools. Hammer cages normally cost $57,000.
“We wanted to make sure that we upgraded the facilities wherever we train at,” Robertson said.
Several other federations have made inquiries about staying in southern Lane County so they could get accustomed to the climate and rest before competing.
“Hopefully, by the time summer is here, they will be spread through a lot of towns,” Robertson said. “I just don’t know of any more right now.”
Robertson said Mayor Dave Stram had to twist his arm just a bit to convince him to be a runner a few years back.
“Dave didn’t really lie to me, but he tricked me into a run I was not equipped for at all,” Robertson said. “He asked me to do a trail run with him, and I didn’t know it was going to be a 20-mile run. I was pretty much crippled for a week.
“Then he said, ‘Hey since you’re such a good runner, you want to train for a marathon?’ I said I would train with him, but I’m not doing a marathon, that’s just stupid.
“I wound up doing the Newport Marathon, and then I qualified for my first Boston Marathon. I’ve run marathons all over the world, I’ve finished first in my age division, and I was second in my age division in New York.”
He hasn’t stopped there. Robertson, 66, has run 53 marathons since turning 50, including 10 or 11 ultra-marathons. And just for good measure, he coaches a group of competitive adult runners who meet at 4:45 every morning. They call themselves “5 a.m. Madness.”
“When I got back here after being in Alaska for a few years, the Hayward Field magic was gone, and ever since I got back it’s been my goal to re-energize the field, and to reignite that fire.”
Want to get involved? Contact Lonn Robertson at [email protected].
