Finland’s record-setting high jumper Ella Junnila is a real Joker card at the Paris Olympics, writes Urheilu’s Joel Sippola.
Joel Sippola sports reporter
Wilma Murron had to go into this summer as the brightest hope for success for the track and field athletes and the entire Finnish Olympic team in general. However, constant injury concerns are watering down the Finnish star’s hopes of an Olympic medal.
In Paris, the brightest trump card of Finnish athletics is the javelin thrower Oliver Helander, which is basically in the medal fight. He also has the ingredients in his body for a good 90-meter arc, with his kind of flow, he will surely find gold in the mountain.
A shot putter in EC-Rome Silja Kosose there was a medal on offer, but in Paris he is far from it. Kosonen’s record is 74.19, while Canada’s Camryn Rogers and with the tough Americans, the 77-meter curve probably required for an Olympic medal.
So young Kosonen should suddenly improve his record by three meters, which is complete utopia.
However, based on the early summer, Finland has a real wild card in Paris athletics. Helander can be talked about as a medal favorite, but Ella Junnila has, on the other hand, become a medal candidate for the Olympic high altitude race.
An important flow state
Even before the Paavo Nurmi Games, I considered Junnila a potential surprise when thinking about Paris. The jumping of Junnila, who finished fifth at the European Championships in Rome, was so convincing in Italy.
Junnila exceeded 193 in the height final, which was her best result in more than three years. Even at that time, the height of 195 was too much. However, the crossing from the previous height was so airy that it denied the 25-year-old Finnish jumper that he was in the shape of his life.
In Rome, what was also striking was the way Junnila aired her crossings already in qualifying. It speaks of clear liberation and relaxation. They were missing from the Finn’s performances for a long time, but now it’s working.
High jump, along with pole vault, is an athletics sport where flow mode helps. It was seen, for example, at the European Championships two years ago, when Murto improved his record by 13 cents and won the European championship.
For the medal fight
Junnila, who scored SE 197 at Turku’s athletics evening, only captured her stocks with the Olympics in mind. With his most recent quotation, he shares the fourth place in the world statistics.
The women’s height deck is comfortably relaxed at the moment. The sport has dominated Ukraine in recent years Jaroslava Mahutshih is a clear top name, but otherwise it’s really flat.
If you exceed, for example, a height of 197 or 198 at the Olympics, you are really high. At the European Championships, the bronze medal was won by surpassing the height of 195. Even at the Olympics, the top names in height come mainly from Europe, with the exception of a couple of tough Australians.
In Turku, Junnila made promising crossings over the two-meter phantom line. So there is no doubt that the height in question would be exceeded in Paris in a good flow condition.
Junnila’s Paris shares seem really attractive at this stage.