everyone knows who the baltic states are:
estonia, latvia, and lithuania.
but you know nothing is ever that simple.
what about finland?
no, no, finland belongs with the nordic states;
denmark, sweden, and norway, right?
well, language divides these countries a little differently.
latvian and lithuanian are related languages
estonian and finnish are related
and the danish, swedish and norwegian are related.
break them into those groupings,
and the different nationalities can understand each other easily.
cross those lines,
the languages are totally unrelated!
well, lithuania doesnt have a team,
but you can expect some rivalry between the others.
looking at the projections, and the backyard history of these teams is equally confusing.
norway was the first nordic state to have a backyard.
but sweden has the most backyard races.
denmark, with david stoltenborg (73 yards) and soren moller (66) has the strongest projected leaders.
sweden, led by niklas sjoblom (62 yards) is projected to win the nordic states.
norway’s best backyarder, jon asphjell, is sitting out the race to coach the norwegian team.
estonia has the longest backyard history among the baltic states,
and is projected to finish highest.
but latvia’s ritvars kalnins (64 yards) has the biggest credentials going in.
estonian hannes viede has recently returned from retirement,
and while he has not yet posted the results he had in the past,
he and ritvars were among the first backyard superstars
having had some epic battles in the early days of the sport.
and finland?
finalnd is projected to finish 6 points ahead of norway as a nordic state
and first among the baltic states.
confusing?
oh yeah.
how these competitions end up will probably be decided by athletes i didn’t even mention,
that step up and exceeds expectations.
these rivalries are going to be fun to watch,
because rivalries they are.
bragging rights are on the line!
