Wilma Murro’s, 24, diamond competition balance is astonishing – tells about the four-year project that turned the junior star into a fierce competitor

Pole vaulter Wilma Murto has managed to stretch in recent years, especially in value competitions. Murto has brought Finland the famous points from both the World Championships and the Olympics. At the Tokyo Olympics, Murto finished in a shared fifth place and in the World Championships in Oregon, he finished in a shared sixth place.

In both games, Murto has succeeded better than the statistical comparison made before the games suggested.

Murro has not grown up to be a good competitive athlete by chance. It has required long-term, conscious work with psychological coaching.

– In that competitive situation, the physical condition will not change at all. If you were in good shape before the Games, then the condition is still there. Instead, mental health can make bigger swings in one direction or another, Murto said.

Murto has been worked on by a sports psychologist Hannaleena Ronkainen with for four years, among other things, performing in value competitions. He has learned to control the tension and to take more advantage than harm from the pressure. And the psychological training has not only been useful for value competitions, because Murto has received many useful tools for everyday activities.

Of course, top results are not achieved with top mental fitness alone. Murto has been in very good physical condition in the last years’ value competitions.

– The scorers of the value competitions have increased my self-confidence and I have noticed that I have developed specifically as a value competition athlete. I’ve gotten the best out of important places.

At the same time, Murto has noticed how young he was in his first prestigious competitions. The Salon Vilppaa jumper, who turned 24 in June, was only 18 years old when he made his debut in the adult competition at the European Championships in Amsterdam. At that time, he was seventh in the pole vault final with a score of 445.

After this, Murto has represented Finland in prestigious competitions for adults eight times. In six years, he has grown from a junior to an adult.

– The athlete’s professionalism has developed quite a lot and he feels more confident in value competitions. It feels like I belong there, and I’m not just wondering.

Over the past four years, Murto has grown from a promising junior star to an adult top athlete.

Wilma Murto has won under-19 World Championship bronze and European Championship bronze in her career, but at the European Championships in Munich, she has the opportunity to win medals in adult competitions as well.

In this season’s European statistics, he is tied for ninth place with a score of 460, but if you remove the Russian athletes from the statistics, the ranking rises by two places. At the World Championships, Murto was the third best European Slovenian by Tina Sutej and Greece Time of Stefanidin after.

– It’s somehow a bit ironic that when the previous value competitions have gone so well, it has in a certain way brought an additional challenge to preparing for the European Championships. I am aware of the pressure of success coming from myself, but also from outside. That is one variable that has had to be dealt with, Murto reflected.

– Of course it’s exciting and a good feeling to go to the Games. I’ve wanted to think about it so that if there are five or six athletes in the EC finals who have a seam to be on medals, then I belong to that group.

Murto, who jumped the Finnish record 472 last summer, was in record shape at the World Championships in his own opinion, because there was a lot behind him in the jumps. This time, everything didn’t come together in the jump to create a Finnish record, but he managed to beat the season’s best with a result of 460.

However, Murto believes that during this season new SE readings can still be created.

– I myself have the idea that it will be a miracle if it doesn’t work. Of course, rodding is a sport that is affected by the weather, but you never know, even if it’s a good day.

After the World Championships in Oregon, Wilma Murto focused on recovering from the time difference before she set her sights on the European Championships in Munich. The Kaleva games in Joensuu also fit in between, the timing of which was not optimal in Murro’s opinion.

Murto experienced a rare situation at the WC, as he was left in silver place after four championships with a score of 440. Murto’s performance could have been affected by the fact that the training load of the previous week weighed on his limbs, and he was not in very good shape.

Murto has done everything with the European Championships in mind. During the preparation week, he no longer does jumping training, but more training that maintains and energizes and rests a lot.

– The condition is booming from there and will then be at its best in the European Championships, Murto assured.

– These good value competition experiences have given us credit for the process that we have as a coach Jarno Koivunen with for preparing for the games. I have a very confident feeling that it will work this time too.

The women’s saber qualification is on the opening day of the European Championships on Monday, among the first sports. Murto knows that when he stands at the other end of the speed-taking track on August 15th and prepares for his first qualifying jump, either some simple technical thing is going through his mind, or alternatively, he has reached a completely blank mind.

– You always have to take the attitude that even the first height of the qualification, which is probably somewhere around 430, must always be exceeded. At that point, it’s pointless to think that it would be nice to jump 470 or 480 in the final. You have to manage it by focusing on what needs to be done at that particular moment.

The women’s pole vault qualification is on the program on Monday from 11:25. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and the app. Seipää’s final is on Wednesday at 9 p.m.