Among the main candidates, according to the Finnish media, was Jalonen’s 63-year-old namesake Kari, who had led the Czech national team since March last year and led it to bronze at the championships in Tampere and Helsinki. After this year’s WC in Riga and Tampere, where the Czechs finished seventh, he was recalled and replaced by Radim Rulík. Currently, there is speculation that Kari Jalonen could be one of the candidates for the new coach of Kometa Brno.
The 44-year-old Pennanen led the Finnish national team from 2020 to 2022 and won bronze and silver with it at the world championships. He also contributed to the gold in 2016 as an assistant to Jukka Jalonen, and was in the same position with him from 2018 to 2020 with the Suomi first team. So he was also at the triumph at the World Championships in 2019 in Bratislava and Košice.
“It’s great that we quickly agreed with Pennanen and Ilves. In it, the representative A-team will get an experienced and successful coach who knows the environment of representative training from before,” said the CEO of the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation, Sami Kauhanen.
Ilves has been leading Pennanen since last October and led the team with a large Czech colony to 4th place this season. “Being the head coach of the national A-team and training at the Winter Olympics are dreams that I am now fulfilling. The job also includes a lot of other things. During the meeting, in addition to games and sports, we discussed a lot about, for example, social issues that are important to me. My work in the national team starts in June, until then I am fully focused on Ilves,” said Pennanen, who led Hämeenlinn to the Finnish league title in 2019.
Jukka Jalonen led the Finnish national team as head coach from 2008 to 2013, then returned after five years, during which he worked in St. Petersburg, with the Finnish national team and with Jokerit Helsinki. He won gold at the World Championships in 2011, 2019 and 2022 and last year at the Olympic Games in Beijing. He has a complete collection of medals from the world championships, including a silver from the year before last and a bronze from 2008 in the position of assistant. He led the team to 3rd place in Vancouver in 2010 under five rings.
2023-09-29 14:45:20
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