Andreas Thorkildsen throwing in Kuortane (© Paula Noronen)
Norway’s World, Olympic and European champion Andreas Thorkildsen took his first ever victory in Kuortane, as the annual Finnish Elite Games Series got underway for this summer on Saturday (26).
Two-time Olympic champion Thorkildsen came into the competition with a 81.31m throw, and only took the lead in the 4th round with 87.95m and gave his best to the packed audience of some 4000 people in the final round, with a 88.10 release.
Thorkildsen amassed a good series with other throws of 85.83, 85.97 and 86.86 and was very satisfied.
"There is not very much for me to improve from my performance today; just some little things. It means a lot to win here, in front of these wonderful spectators, who know so much about the Javelin Throw," said Thorkildsen.
Conditions were almost ideal for the Javelin during the first three rounds: tail wind and temperature of about 20 degrees. Then the wind changed the direction a bit and partly caused problems to some throwers, but not Tero Pitkämäki and Teemu Wirkkala, who raised hope for Finnish Javelin medals at the European Championships in Barcelona.
Pitkämäki's technique had not been very good in his previous competitions this season, but now he improved remarkably with 86.78 in the 2nd and 86.92 in the 5th round.
"Now I got my left foot in the position I wanted to. That’s the main reason, why I found some more metres. Mentally it was very important, too, because I must admit, I was a worried," said Pitkämäki.
Wirkkala set a solid series and jumped into 4th place in the world season list with 86.53 on his second attempt.
"I tried too much, which always costs in this event. I wanted too eagerly to throw a huge throw", Wirkkala commented.
Antti Ruuskanen produced a best of 82.58 and Ari Mannio had 81.30, so it was a very good Midsummer Festival day for the Finns.
Evilä’s 8.07m takes exciting Long Jump
The men’s Long jump was a very exciting competition helped by a strong tail wind. Big thunder clouds sailed in the sky quite near Kuortane, but only a few water drops came down.
Finland’s Tommi Evilä (equalled Finnish record of 8.22m on 5 June) passed three jumps, because he did not wanted to risk anything after getting over some tightness in his groin two weeks ago. Three attempts were enough, as Evilä took first place in the 4th round with a 8.07m leap assisted by +2.1 m/s wind.
"I felt nothing in the groin, and physically I’m in such a good condition that 8m is possible for me everyday," said Evilä.
Korea’s Kim Deon Hyeong missed Evilä’s mark by only one centimetre when leaping 8.06m in the final round, and South African 18-year-old Luvo Mayonyas’ mark of 8.03 gave him third place. Unfortuntely, both these marks were windy, and so was Finland’s Petteri Lax’s 6th jump of 7.97m.
Lax has not yet set the entry standard of 7.90m for the European Champs, and now the wind was +2.1 m/s.
Keskisalo spurts sharply
Reigning European 3000m Steeplechase champion, Jukka Keskisalo, is coming into his peak form. In Kuortane, Keskisalo produced a sharp 300 metres spurt in the Men’s 3000m flat race which he won quite easily in 7:57.97.
"Comparing to last year (ran 8:10.67 Finnish Steeplechase record in Zürich), I’m a couple of weeks late, because I had some foot problems in February. After that my training camp in Flagstaff, USA, went well, but I started the hill training sessions two weeks later than I would want to", said Keskisalo, who of course is focussing on defending his title in Barcelona this summer.
Antti-Pekka Sonninen for the IAAF
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