The stakes are high at the World Championships in Oregon – Helander’s final place guaranteed the javelin, where Germany’s entire athletics reputation is at stake

When Finnish javelinmen have been involved in value competitions, at least one has always made it to the finals. Throughout history, there have mainly been two or three finalists. No fewer than four Finnish throwers were seen in the 2009 World Cup finals in Berlin, when Tero in Pitkämäki the defending world champion had an extra place in the games and all four made it through the qualifying screening.

In recent years, a similar certainty of qualification at the World Cup level has not come into question. Or it is in 2017, when Pitkämäki made it to the Games as the only Finn at all and eventually to the final. Since then, when going to each qualifying competition, the Finnish javelin man’s final place has been anything but a foregone conclusion.

Resting heart rate may have risen in the home crowd after the A team had thrown their lot at Hayward Field. Lassi Etelätalo already had time to assess that his best 80.03 was not enough for the final.

For Finnish athletics, the men’s javelin final is in the same position as the discus throw for the Germans. Three of the most successful German World Cup athletes, Lars Riedel, Robert Harting and women’s star Franka Dietzsch, are discus throwers. The sport’s status over the years has therefore been comparable to how Finns feel about javelin throwing.

In Oregon, the men’s discus WC final was thrown for the first time without German men. Avoiding a similar fate to the Finnish javelin men, at least momentarily, was the goal of the three-time champion and three-time qualifier by Oliver Helander on the shoulders.

Not a dream combination before the start of Group B.

Helander, 25, ended the javelin race short when the stick flew to 82.41 in the opening round. Helander spent the next brisk half-hour on the field just feeling the atmosphere of the competition, because there was no need to return to the throwing wood anymore.

Unlike before, Helander did not make south houses, i.e. kept the home spectators in suspense until the last throw. Etelätalo held on again and for the third time in his career cleared his way to the finals of the prestigious competition as the last, i.e. the 12th athlete. On previous occasions, at the European Championships in Zurich 2014 and the World Championships in Doha 2019, after a near-miss qualification, Etelätalo took home fourth place in both finals.

If the settings of the javelin final, which will be thrown in the morning Finnish time on Sunday, are viewed through the lens of realism, the fourth place is, at least by a few measures, the Finnish maximum level.

Defending world champion Grenada Anderson Peters and the defending Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra have been by far the two most consistent top pitchers of the season, and the routine was immediately visible even at Hayward Field. Both threw nearly 90 meters with their first throw in qualifying. The next two hardest throwers of the season, Germany Julian Weber87,28, and the Czech Republic Jakub Vadlejch, 85.23, were also successful with their first qualifying throw. The tough ones were the toughest in the first WC show, and except for Weber, everyone has experience of reaching a medal as well.

The scalp of even one of these is unlikely for Etelätalo in the final, but in Helander, the chairman of the Sports Association is smoldering Sami Itanin potential salvation as far as the World Championships in Eugene are concerned. Itani stated in Urheilulehti before the Oregon Games that if the Finnish team returns with a medal from both the World Cup and European Championships, he will leave his place in SUL.

The expected value in terms of medals will only be linked to the European Championships in Munich in August, but the chairman will hardly mind if Helander saves him dry already a month in the front field.

Helander has been in 90-meter shape all summer, but the injury-prone athlete has saved his spots and skipped competitions after successes. If before this, the break between hard competitions was calculated at least in two weeks, now you should perform at the maximum level with a one-day recovery.

Succeeding in qualifying on the first throw was like a custom job thinking about the final. The same order applies to the final, if we want to talk about the first Finnish World Cup medal since Pitkämäki, who coached Helander, and the 2015 Beijing Games.

Helander is determined to cross 90 meters and repeat Aki Parviainen a trick from 2001. At that time, Parviainen beat Edomonton in the World Cup final with his opening 91.31, which was finally enough for silver Jan Zelezny after pushing past in the next round with a still valid competition record of 92.72.

However, Parviainen had the ability to throw 90 meters even in the last rounds, as shown by the golden throw in the fifth round of the 1999 World Cup final in Seville. The same was true of Pitkämäki, whose hand left the previous Finnish man in his nineties in the last round of the 2007 World Cup final.

There is simply no data on Helander whether he is able to stretch in the aforementioned ways in the last rounds of the races. Helander’s previous race in which he has thrown all six rounds at full speed is from June 2021. Both full speed races this season have produced over 85 meters, but in both races the success came either on the first or second throw and the race was wrapped up after four rounds.

With Helander’s capacity, anything is possible between a gold medal and 12th place.

If the javelin final is a life and death competition for Finnish athletics in terms of the most likely World Cup medal, it is also for Germany, known as the superpower of the sport. As incredible as it sounds, Germany, like Finland, will be in the zero club three days before the end of the Games.

The relegation has been surprising when you consider that in the five previous World Championships, the team has received between five and eight medals.

As for the most potential candidate for success at the end, he is one of the early favorites for the long jump on the final day Malaika Mihambo. Apart from Julian Weber, who was on fire the day before, it is quiet on the front of the Germans operating with a medal seam.

In the javelin final, Germany is betting on the reputation of its athletics, which lives on the precious metals of the throwing sports.

Germany has missed out on a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships only once before, in Paris 2003. If the team ends up in the zero club in Oregon, the European Championships in Munich, starting in mid-August, will be under truly massive pressure at home.