36 countries and 128 athletes – now Wilma Murto is finally taking Finland’s World Cup oddball into history

Finland has never achieved a World Cup medal in jumping sports, where the country’s attraction is actually resisted. This freak is going down in history, writes journalist Pekka Holopainen.

The Kaleva Games in Lahti 27.–30.7. Urheilu follows the events in this article. The women’s pole vault final is scheduled for Saturday at 6:10 p.m.

In 40 years, Finland has won 21 medals at the World Championships in Athletics with a total of 14 athletes.

Although the team has traveled to the previous three games without a realistic prospect of a medal, Finland’s total haul during the history of the World Cup so far has been confusingly multi-valued.

At least one medal has been achieved in both sprint and hurdles, endurance running, throws, multi-events, walking and so-called horizontal jumps.

Long jumper Tommi Evilän After the World Cup bronze medal 18 years ago, medals have only come from the men’s javelin throw.

Earth’s gravity

At the World Championships, which will start in Budapest in just over three weeks, Finland’s only favorite for a medal will come from the sport group whose enthusiasts have to fight the country’s gravity the most: vertical jumping.

Wilma Murto is Antti Kalliomäki and the first Finnish pole vaulter since the end of the 1970s, whose lack of a medal would be a clear disappointment.

As a World Cup medalist, he would be Finland’s first in those sports. At the World Cup level, he is exactly the first one from whom a medal has ever been expected, on any rational basis.

Ice cold data

The data is ice cold. The World Championships have been held 18 times, and a total of 128 pole vaulters or high jumpers have been awarded medals. 57 in the first mentioned sport and 71 in the latter. In total, these athletes have represented 36 different countries when they won a medal. Finland is in 27th place in the all-time World Cup medal statistics.

In the vertical jumps, he has not even been caught on the sidelines of a medal. History is symbolized by the fact that no Finnish man has ever passed the pole vault qualification at the World Championships by jumping.

Junior European champion Juho Alasaari will next try to break the curse in Budapest.

In the first World Championships in 1983 in Helsinki, the whole trio of course jumped in the final competition – because in the end the qualification was not jumped at all due to weather conditions.

Of course, Murto only did what was necessary on Friday in the qualifying for the Kaleva Games in Lahti. Unfortunately, not much more can be expected from the most valuable athlete for the Games even in Saturday’s finals, as the weather forecast for Päijät-Häme promises torrential rain from the beginning of the afternoon onwards for the entire duration of the finals.

In a high-risk sport like pole vaulting, the brightest medal for a superstar like Murro is to avoid injury just before the dreams of competing in world-class competitions are about to come true. The new, long and stiff wings that brought victory in the London Diamond League will not see the light of day in Lahti.

The Kaleva Games in Lahti 27.–30.7. Urheilu follows the events in this article. The women’s pole vault final is scheduled for Saturday at 6:10 p.m.

You can discuss the topic until Saturday 29.7. until 11 p.m. Tunnus is required for commenting.