Creswell community rolls out welcome mat for team Finland before they compete in Oregon22

CRESWELL — Eugene might be Track Town USA, but for the past week, Creswell has belonged to Finland.

The town 14 miles south of Hayward Field is playing an active role in the upcoming World Athletics Championships by hosting the Finnish team for their pre-meet training camp.

The team of 36 athletes and 13 coaches and support staff began arriving from Finland on July 5 to prepare for the world championships, which begin Friday with the first of 10 days of competition.

The team is staying at a local hotel and in a couple of rental houses. They have full access to the track and other athletic facilities at Creswell High School for training and are being fed each day with catered meals at Emerald Valley Golf Club.

“Things are going really, really well,” said Lonn Robertson, the lead community organizer and liaison in Creswell’s efforts to be a host. “People have been bending over backward to make it work. Finland has too.”

Finland: 'So amazing because of all of this hospitality'

Three years ago, Robertson, Creswell Mayor Dave Stram and resident Sarah Cox answered a call by the state and Oregon22 — the local organizing committee in Eugene — to get cities across Oregon involved in the world championships.

They submitted a bio to be a host city, then had to wait out delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January, Finland reached out and “immediately we knew it was right,” Robertson said. “It was the right number of people, their needs seemed like something we could accommodate, and once that happened, it’s been a constant flurry of emails and texts. … It’s been so exciting.”

And hectic, especially for Robertson, 67, a recently retired dentist who never participated in track and field but grew up loving the sport and attending meets at Hayward Field.

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This past week Robertson has picked people up at the airport and moved hurdles from Creswell to Springfield for a workout at Hamlin Middle School. And Sunday morning, he was on safety patrol, biking alongside Finnish race walker Enni Nurmi as she did a two-hour workout on the roads around Creswell.

“Oh my gosh, I’m an extrovert,” Robertson said from his bike. “I thrive on chaos and people.”

Finland’s team leader, Jarkko Finni, said his group couldn’t be more appreciative.

“It has been so amazing because of all of this hospitality and a small village who really wants us here,” said Finni, 50, a former decathlete. “They make us very comfortable. We have everything that we need and what we asked.”

'He is no longer just my idol'

Those needs included a functional hammer cage — a rarity in a state that doesn’t sponsor the event at the high school level — to accommodate a talented team of Finnish throwers.

Robertson reached out to Lance Deal, a Eugene resident and four-time Olympian who won a silver medal in hammer throw in Atlanta in 1996. The former Oregon assistant coach offered to build and temporarily install a new hammer cage and throwing surface at the high school at a significant discount. Deal’s hammer cages typically sell for $58,000, but the one he built and set up in Creswell cost $12,000.

“He is no longer just my idol, he is like a God to me,” said Robertson, who led the fundraising efforts to get the hammer cage, which is being sold to Vanderbilt University once the meet ends. “He is one of the most wonderful men I’ve ever met, and he’s helped with so much.”

Word of Deal’s hammer cage reached other team camps, and last week members of the Italian team showed up in Creswell looking to get in some practice.

“We wanted this to be a full community event and we wanted Creswell to be part of this whole worldwide event,” said Mike Johnson, superintendent of the Creswell School District, which is leasing the high school facilities to Finland.

“I knew that Creswell would embrace this," Johnson said. "It’s just a small community and you look for opportunities to be a part of a bigger thing, and this is the big thing.”

Other countries in other communities

Other local communities are hosting teams for the world championships.

The contingent from Ireland, for example, has a couple dozen people staying at the McKenzie Camp — formerly USA Basketball Academy — in Blue River. They are training at the McKenzie Community Track in Vida.

Botswana’s 15-member team has been based in Cottage Grove.

Most of the Finnish athletes will move this week to Eugene and the Athlete Village on the University of Oregon campus.

“Everybody has been so nice and so hospitable,” Finnish women’s high jumper Ella Junnila said. “I really like the town because it’s so small. Before coming here I was worried about, ‘Is it safe to walk in the evening? Can I cycle somewhere?’ But it’s been great.”

Thanks in no small part to a communitywide effort to make the Finnish team feel welcome.

“We didn’t know what we had,” Robertson said. “But the gas station, the grocery store, the bakery, everybody’s jumped in. It’s been remarkable.”

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com.

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This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Finland preps for World Athletics Championships in Creswell