AUGUST FAR SPORTS
The Finnish sports talk during July has been mostly about who’s going to the Olympics in London and how come Finland got only a bronze medal in a truncated European Athletics Championships held this year at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki in early July..
Ari Mannio,
Antti Ruuskanen and
Teemu Wirkkala were in good position to represent Finland at the European Championships in the javelin in Helsinki. To give former world champ
Tero Pitkämäki a chance to snap out of his doldrums and show good stuff, it was decided to hold off picking the team until after the annual Javelin Carnival at Pihtipudas on June 17. Pitkämäki won that with his best throw of the season of 83.87, so he, Ruuskanen (84.95m the longest Finnish season’s mark, and Ari Mannio were named to the team. But , alas, Ruuskanen came down with a fever so Wirkkala, with a problem ankle, was named to replace him.
So in the qualifying Euro round on June 27 at the Olympic Stadium, both Mannio with his season’s
best of 84.31and Pitkämäki with 80.06 made the final. Wirkkala with ankle trouble got no mark. Then
in the final, Pitkämäki went back into his old slump by trying too hard and scored a miserable 74.89 for 11th place. Vitezslav Vasely of the Czech Republic won it with a modest 83.75 and the silver went to unheralded young Russian Valeri Jardin with 83..25. Mannio got the bronze and the only Finnish medal in the Games with 82.63. (How much Ari must have wished he’d switch the length of his qualifying throw with his result in the final. He would have been European champion!)
Finland just missed the hardware in the men’s 1500m run, when Swede-Finn
Niclas Sandells, who had won his heat in the qualifiers and was a favorite to take the final, was pushed and tripped by a Turkish runner when Sandells was in the lead pack on a late race turn and was sent sprawling to ruin his best shot. The Turk was at first disqualified but on appeal this was overturned as unintentional. Norway’s Henrik Ingbretsen was the winner in 3:41.20, the slowest European championship time in 62 years! Roni Ollikainen earned a respectable 6th place in men’s long jump for two championship points with a personal best of 805 cms. 20005 World Bronze medalist Tommi Evilä had qualified for the final with an 801 but fell far back in the final. So that’s all she wrote for Finland in these games.
So who’s going to throw the spear for the Finns at the Olympic Games in London which should
be happening when you receive your August FAR? Well, that was decided at the Lapinlahti Elite
Games on July 8. Tero Pitkämäki got his act together and won the javelin in 81.70, so a day later the
Finnish Olympic Committee decided to give him another shot, to accompany Mannio and Ruuskanen
to Londontown. Others who got the Oly nod at Lapinlahti were another Swede-Finn Sandra Eriksson
who made the B Standard with her 3000m steeplechase result in a PB of 9:43.38 and the unlucky Euro contender Niclas Sandells whe ran the men’s 1500m in a PB showing of 3:36.38, which time would have easily won him a gold at the European Championships had the freak accident not happened.
Other track & field contenders at London who we haven’t mentioned previously in FAR include
Jere Bergius (pole vault),
Jonathan Astrand (200m), Osku Torro (high jump),
Minna Nikkanen (pole vault),
Sanni Utriainen (javelin), and
Anne Halkivaha (20K racewalk). In other sports Olympians include:
Jaana Sundberg (52Kg judo),
Matti Kettunen (60Kg Greco-roman wrestling),
Jussi Veikkanen (bicycling),
Pia Sundstedt (who just won the Euro mountain bike title),
Jarkko Nieminen (tennis), and former world champ
Hanna-Maria Seppälä,
Emilia Pikkarainen,
Noora Laukkanen,
Jenna Laukkanen,
Ari-Pekka Liukkonen,
Matti Mattsson (swimming).
Jenna Laukkanen has just set a Finnish record of 2:26.39
Olympics-bound 50K racewalker
Jarkko Kinnunen (along with
Antti Kempas), set a new 10,000m
personal best of 39:59.09 at Kauhava on July 8, the second fastest track time in Finnish walking history. The record is still held by former 50K world champion Valentin Kononen of 39:23.39 in 1995. The 10K road equivalent of 38:59 was set a few weeks back by Veli-Matti (Aku) Partanen.
Now last and least, out here in California, your trusty scribe took golds in the javelin and softball throw and silvers in the shot and discus at the Western States International Invitational at Davis in the men’s 85-89-year age group. An accomplished 85y.o. virtuoso from Reno was the first man his age I’ve ever seen use the modern rotary-style shot put throw to win. If I’d tried that classy spin, I’d have broken off both legs at the knees. One more meet coming up this year at Chabot College in Hayward on July 22 where I’ve registered for the shot, jav, discus and 200m.
