Wilma Murto caught the world’s biggest equipment selector who rejected her – showed signs of a European champion in the middle of the final

French Marie-Julie Bonnin drops the bar from 465. It’s 21:40 local time, the medalists of the women’s pole vault final are clear. The race is still in progress, but it is already certain that Wilma Murto has restored Finland’s prize pool of medals after a six-year hiatus.

Six years is also a time window that is specifically associated with Murro’s career. When Antti Ruuskanen achieved the previous prestigious medal, EC bronze, in Amsterdam in 2016, at that time 17-year-old Murro’s name was already on the lips of Finnish athletics people.

Earlier in February of the same year, the young man from Salo had made an effort not only to Finns, but also to the world following the field sports of athletics, by jumping the under-20 world record 471 in Zweibrücke.

Since that jump, expectations have been placed on Murto, which there have been no Finnish juniors to share until the queue. When we come from the ME moment to today and take into account Finnish athletics’ streak without a medal, which has been extended year after year, on Wednesday evening at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, 400 kilometers southeast of Zweibrücke, no one could have blamed Murro for a small sigh of relief at 9:40 p.m.

But when the French jumper lowered the bar, there was no knowledge of this. A stony-faced athlete in perfect Zone passed to the upper gallery of the north end of the Munich Olympic Stadium. The burglary showed the mischief of the master. The evening of the talent that rose to stardom as a teenager was still badly over.

Wilma Murto exceeded 475 and a moment later 480, which decided the European championship. See Murro’s crossings in the videos below. The story continues after the videos.

If Murro’s career had to be described with one adjective, consistency would not progress from qualifying to the final stage. The main reason can be found in injuries that have made it difficult to fulfill the potential that popped up six years ago.

A rocket start to his career guaranteed that Murto had a completely exceptional starting point for a Finnish track and field athlete to pursue stardom. The ME reading of 471 guaranteed that economic conditions did not hold back development. The energy drink giant Red Bull and the world’s largest sports equipment manufacturer Nike took Murto under their wing, but the latter showed the Finn the door at the end of last season, even though in the Tampere SC final Murto blew the SE readings that brought the sponsors to 472.

In no time, I can’t think of a better way to catch the Oregon company – or, well, the World Cup gold would have been in its backyard, but don’t get greedy.

If Murto showed the signs of a champion already after the medal was decided, the formula held that the championship was also decided. But the fact that after this Murto still exceeded the bar of 485 and thus broke the record of the European championships, raises the gold medal high in the hall of honor of Finnish athletics. It is now the size of 34 gold medals for the European Championships held since 1934.

Watch Wilma Murro’s crossing from height 485 in the video below. The story continues after the video.

The championship of the jump brought the pole vault to the top spot in terms of European championships won with a competition record. There are now four, while at 10,000 meters there are three – the first European Championship in 1934 when it is not meaningful to count it as a record.

Just passed away Eeles Landström won EC gold with competition records in 1954 and 1958, and Pentti Nikula continued the streak in 1962 – with a result 5 cents lower than Murto 60 years later.

The Olympic Stadium in Munich has been contested for athletics medals three times now, and at least one Finn has won a gold medal each time. During the medal-free years 2016-2021, many have turned to YouTube and old athletics classics. Nostalgia has reared its head, which is understandable.

While at the same time the western neighbors have had Armand Duplantis, by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Karsten Warholm and Daniel Ståhl like medal machines, in Finnish athletics coffee table discussions, old legends and their catchphrases have been repeated until boredom.

As a young track and field athlete, Murto represents a completely different type of character than, say, the spear hero of the deep ranks of the nation Seppo Räty, whose opinion about Germany has certainly not been unclear to anyone. But after 50 years of witnessing in Munich Lasse Virénin, Pekka Vasalan, by Janne Holmén and Wilma Murron gold medals like that, which go down in history to the brightest elite of Finnish athletics, couldn’t Germany be called a wonderful country instead of shit?